Rewarding Virtue

Book excerpt: In his autobiography, Benjamin Franklin presents a plan for moral perfection: a set of thirteen virtues for individuals to cultivate. These virtues are meant to aid in one's economic and political successes while contributing to the greater social good. Rewarding Virtue questions whether Franklin's premise--that living virtuously benefits the individual as well as the community--can be judged by historical experience. In this book each of Franklin's famous virtues (temperance, order, silence, etc.) are presented in such a way to determine if living by these maxims do result in enhanced wealth or reputation. With a similar utilitarian spirit this book attempts to judge the worthiness of his ideas in the actual human experience. The subjects for this experiment are some of the best-known Americans. Presidents of the United States are assigned a virtue and then thoroughly investigated (i.e. Ulysses S. Grant and temperance, Franklin Delano Roosevelt and tranquility, etc.) By examining the lives of these selected presidents, the reader is challenged to entertain the possibility that these are lessons that could be applied to contemporary life.