To compare Gulliver's Travels and Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography is to compare two definitive insights into the nature of humanity and humanity's role in the world. Perhaps due to the various and differing social movements of the times and places in which they lived, or perhaps as a result of the events of their lives, Jonathan Swift and Benjamin Franklin appear to have starkly contrasting views with respect to human nature, and, more specifically, to the limits of human knowledge and whether or not such limits exist at all.
As evidenced by the societies Gulliver encounters on his voyages, Swift appears to have a more negative view of humanity, demonstrating that there is a limit to human understanding; that humans are not meant to know everything. Benjamin Franklin, on the other hand, demonstrates an opinion that humans ought to strive for excellence, or perfection, and that the highest possible level of wisdom and knowledge is a goal worth striving for.
[...] The following passage from Part II illustrates Franklin's rejection of Swift's notion that there is a purposeful and existent limit to human improvement and understanding: It was about this time that I conceiv'd the bold and arduous Project of arriving at moral Perfection. I wish'd to live without committing any Fault at anytime; I would conquer all that either Natural Inclination, Custom, or Company might lead me into. As I knew, or thought I knew, what was right and wrong, I did not see why I might not always do the one and avoid the other…I concluded at length, that the mere speculative Conviction that it was our Interest to be completely virtuous, was not sufficient to prevent our Slipping, and that 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. [...]
[...] As this is simply a comparison of Franklin's autobiography and Swift's views as portrayed by Gulliver's Travels, we may not have a complete picture of Swift's true feelings on the matter. With that being said, Jonathan Swift certainly appears to be substantially less optimistic of humanism and humanity than Benjamin Franklin. Works cited: Franklin, Benjamin. Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography. Ed. J. A. Leo Lemay and Paul M. Zall. New York: Norton, 1986. Print. Swift, Jonathan. Gulliver's Travels. Ed. Claude Julien. Rawson and Ian Higgins. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2005. Print. [...]
[...] The limits of mankind's understanding: a comparison of Franklin and Swift “The greatest happiness for the thinking man is to have fathomed the fathomable, and to quietly revere the unfathomable.” Johann Wolfgang von Goethe To compare Gulliver's Travels and Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography is to compare two definitive insights into the nature of humanity and humanity's role in the world. Perhaps due to the various and differing social movements of the times and places in which they lived, or perhaps as a result of the events of their lives, Jonathan Swift and Benjamin Franklin appear to have starkly contrasting views with respect to human nature, and, more specifically, to the limits of human knowledge and whether or not such limits exist at all. [...]
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