Download Homo Economicus

Ben Franklin:
Homo Economicus
Inventing a Self
• Rags to Riches Story
• Self-Creation, Self-Invention
• Self in the Making
Declaration of Independence
• We hold these truths to be self-evident,
that all men are created equal, that they
are endowed by their Creator with certain
unalienable Rights, that among these are
Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
— That to secure these rights,
Governments are instituted among Men,
deriving their just powers from the consent
of the governed
Points to Consider
• Self-Evident Truths
– How self evident are these truths?
• Inalienable Rights
– If they are inalienable, why are colonists
claiming to have been alienated from these
rights?
• Governments rule through consent
– Who decides when consent is to be
withdrawn?
Declaration of Independence
• We, therefore, the Representatives of the United
States of America, in General Congress,
Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of
the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do,
in the Name, and by Authority of the good
People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and
declare, That these United Colonies are, and of
Right ought to be Free and Independent States,
that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the
British Crown, and that all political connection
between them and the State of Great Britain, is
and ought to be totally dissolved
More Points
• Document declares the colonies to be no
longer colonies of Great Britain
• “are and ought”: document simultaneously
claims the colonies to be self-governing,
and that they ought to be so
– On whose authority is this claim being made?
• Can a written or spoken claim make it so?
The Drama of Self-Invention
• Both Franklin and the Declaration describe
an entity they themselves created.
• Franklin understands himself to be an
authored text
• Declaration authors The United States of
America
Ben Franklin as Text
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Wants to correct his faults (3)
Draws attention to his “Errata” (21,42)
Believes they can be corrected (62,67)
Moral self-correction=editing himself
Daily Schedule=becoming the text
Franklin and “Character”
“something of his person and character” (10)
“a known character of liberal promises”
“this good man’s character” (47)
“began to give us credit and character” (59)
Ben Franklin and $$$
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From nothing to somethine
Debt-Credit Relations
Debt=obligation to another
Credit=obligation to Ben Franklin
Credit is symbolic=BF “credited” with a
good character
• Credit as Problem=you must “make good”
on the credit people give you.
Republicanism vs Liberalism
• 2 styles of Democratic politics
• Republicanism: civil society secured through
suppression of self-interest in favor of communal
welfare.
• Virtue the result of self-discipline; virtuous
individuals together make civil and polite society.
• Virtue secures order when power is shared by
many (rather than by a monarch)
Franklin as Republican
• Self-discipline, self-denial, central to his
success
• Virtue, even its appearance, part of his
effort at self-presentation
• Successful when he is unseen
Liberalism
• Freedom of individuals the basis of
democracy
• Individuals motivated by self-interest:
“freedom from” permits the pursuit of selfinterest
• Democratic governments should permit
individuals maximum freedom and minimal
restraint