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We should be careful to avoid presentism, applying modern moral standards to somebody who lived over 200 years ago. By the standards of his time, Franklin was u
by thurn 13y ago
We should be careful to avoid presentism, applying modern moral standards to somebody who lived over 200 years ago. By the standards of his time, Franklin was unquestionably a great man.
- hawkharris 13y agoYou can justify almost any instance of slavery or genocide by arguing that the perpetrators acted according to the standards of their time and communities.
- agwa 13y agoHe's not justifying Franklin's slaveholding, he's justifying Franklin as a person. It's silly to discount everything great Franklin did because he held a position on slavery that was no worse than the prevalent opinion of the time. Most of the "bad" people in history (e.g. Hitler, Pol Pot) acted worse than the standards of their time. Nobody's justifying them or their actions with this logic.
- hawkharris 13y agoI agree that no one should discout Franklin's inventions and great ideas. That's why I was careful to mention them in my comment. But I take issue with forgetting about this one aspect of Franklin's character because he was simply following the standards of his time. The question is, standards for whom? Affluent white people? The standards certainly weren't acceptable to black Americans. I know that I may sound nit-picky, but I think it's important to apply our current sense of morality to this period in American history. When we gloss over the uncomfortable details, we gloss over some of the lessons.