Member-only story
Self-Evident: How Benjamin Franklin’s two-word edit changed American history
The then 70-year-old scientist shifted the philosophical foundation of the United States from religious conviction to rational thought
In the sweltering Philadelphia summer of 1776, Thomas Jefferson handed his draft of the Declaration of Independence to Benjamin Franklin for review. Jefferson, steeped in the philosophy of John Locke, had written that the truths of human equality and unalienable rights were “sacred and undeniable.” But Franklin, a devoted empiricist and friend of David Hume, saw an opportunity to strengthen the philosophical bedrock of the nascent nation. With a few strokes of his pen, he transformed Jefferson’s religious appeal into a statement of rational self-evidence — a change that would echo through centuries of American thought and governance.
I came across this little known anecdotes about early American history while listening to the audio version of the superb “Benjamin Franklin: An American Life,” by Walter Isaacson, which I highly recommend to anyone interested in biographies, history, science, or philosophy. In turn, my curiosity about Franklin was piqued by two independent recent events. A few months ago I visited a friend in Philadelphia, where I held a workshop on Stoic…
