Benjamin Franklin: “Proposal for Promoting Useful Knowledge”

Explanation and Analysis of the Document

During 1743 Benjamin Franklin distributed this document among people of learning and of wealth as part of his effort to create a society that would promote learning in natural philosophy, what would now be called the sciences. He seems to have hoped that such a society would do for America what the Royal Academy did for Britain. Even at this early date, Franklin was thinking that the American colonies would need to help themselves rather than rely on the mother country and the Royal Academy to include them in the benefits enjoyed by British subjects elsewhere. This document became the foundation document for the American Philosophical Society in 1744.

Worthy of note is the opening paragraph, in which Franklin mentions “a long tract of continent, from Nova Scotia to Georgia” to be included in his proposed society. Throughout his life, he tried to include Canadians in social and political developments in America but was chronically disappointed by his failure to persuade Canadians to participate in American affairs. He believes, he says, that America has developed enough economically to afford to have people work on the sciences. His use of the word leisure does not accord with how it is usually used nowadays. To Franklin, leisure time was time to be spent usefully, not in rest or play. When he mentions leisure, he means time spent studying, writing, painting, conducting experiments, and making useful inventions.

When he suggests that the society include at least one expert in various sciences, he does so in the hope of spurring cross-fertilization, with each science learning from the other sciences to produce comprehensive advances in learning. He worries that the discoveries and inventions of too many Americans are being lost for lack of communication. Ever pragmatic in his thought, Franklin hopes that his proposed society will result in the spread of ideas and inventions throughout the colonies, not only preserving those ideas and inventions but also generating better ways of living that would continue America's growth into a society with a robust economy. As is common in Franklin's writing, he thinks of the colonies as one collective community rather than several, and his proposed society is a way to help Americans think of themselves as having a unified destiny.