The Pragmatic Spirit Of Benjamin Franklin's Religious Thoughts

Benjamin Franklin (1709-1790), a scientist, entrepreneur, writer, moralist, statesman, and diplomat, is well recognized as the first self-made man and the most representative American. Numerous researchers have confirmed unanimously his contributions to the development of American science, diplomacy, and morality. The evaluation of Franklin's religious thoughts, however, has long been divergent. Most researchers on this issue concentrate on which religious sect Franklin belongs to. In other words, is Franklin a puritan, or a deist, or an atheist? Until recent years, scholars come to take a neutral stance in exploring the pragmatic and secular elements in his religious thoughts. The current thesis plans to explore the pragmatic spirit in the ambiguous religious thoughts of Franklin against the historical background of the eighteenth-century America.The thesis defines pragmatism by referring to its three features including the experimental approach, the pluralistic attitude and the orientation to improve human betterment. These three features are the criteria this thesis utilizes to analyze the pragmatic spirit of Franklin's religious thoughts. First, the thesis introduces the historical background of Franklin's time, when the religious secularization emerged due to the religious clashes and economic development. Then, the thesis analyzes how the pragmatic spirit directed the focus of Franklin's religious thoughts from an early radicalism based on metaphysical deduction to a more temperate stance of religious pluralism. Franklin's emphasis on virtues to improve social betterment is revealed in this course. In the following chapter, this thesis analyzes how the pragmatic spirit helps Franklin combine deistic and puritan doctrines into his religious system. By analyzing the experimental approach Franklin adopted to address religion, the pragmatic spirit becomes clearly perceived. In the end, the thesis concludes that Franklin's conflicting religious thoughts are developed with an innate pragmatic spirit.