Moral Perfection

Moral Perfection

  • Submitted By: Jenna0745
  • Date Submitted: 03/01/2009 2:35 PM
  • Category: Philosophy
  • Words: 367
  • Page: 2
  • Views: 766

Benjamin Franklin describes moral perfection as “living without committing any fault at any time.” He thinks, “It is in our best interest to be completely virtuous, and the contrary habits must be broken, and good ones acquired and established before we can have any dependence on a steady, uniform rectitude of conduct.” His plan is to create a list of several virtues that seems necessary to him to become more virtuous. He wants to tackle one virtue per week until he is morally perfect.
Franklin derived a plan and had it well-thought out but did not consider the difficulty of his plan. He sets himself up for failure because obtaining complete moral perfection is impossible. It is possible that Franklin may reach his goal but only within his own mind. To actually think he can rid himself of all his flaws is just naïve.
At the beginning of this unit, the class is assigned a project to give us insight on the difficulty of Franklin’s idea. We are advised to choose one bad virtue that we want to change about ourselves. Each student is given a bracelet, and must switch their bracelet, from one hand to the other, each time the student performs their bad habit.
As my bad virtue, I chose to not focus SO much on the negative happenings in my life. Before starting this activity, I dreaded volleyball practice everyday; I absolutely hated it. All I focused on was the negative aspects, even though there were plenty of positive aspects. Once I got my bracelet, I started to notice just how much I really do focus on the negative. Although I still find myself focusing on the negative, it is not nearly as much as before. I am proud to say that this project did change the ending of my volleyball season. I started having more fun and actually looking forward to practice. I even got to play in the last Varsity match.
Franklin had the right idea, but we are human, and none of us will ever be perfect. Although reaching moral perfection is unobtainable; try to tackle one bad...

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