I found it interesting that while reading Pennock’s book, how many similarities and connections there were to The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. One of the main connections I found was when Pennock was talking about curiosity, and its’ importance in acquiring knowledge and “giving organisms a competitive advantage.” Benjamin Franklin was a very curious person, and he believed in finding things out for yourself. In Pennock’s writing, he talks about how curiosity and “moving of the standard path” give an organisms a competitive advantage. This was true for Franklin; since he was curious, he wanted to find out how and why things worked for himself, which ultimately allowed him to be successful in life — not only ending up happy but wealthy, and famous, as well. In later part of chapter 1, Pennock talks about how “…cultivating a life of excellence as equivalent to a life of virtue.” I believe this was exactly how Benjamin Franklin wanted to (and did) live his life. Franklin believed in attaining moral perfection and in having virtues, and he believed that in order to live a successful life, then people needed to accomplish these things. Lastly, Pennock states that people do not just get scientific virtues by “nature alone,” but a person must develop them themselves. This made me think of Franklin’s 13 virtues. Franklin came up with these virtues in order to obtain moral perfection in his life. In order to do this, he would practice and perfect these virtues, and he made he went about honing in on each virtue until he could perfect them to his liking. This relates back to what Pennock says: that curiosity and scientific virtues must be practiced and developed in order to make them “habitual” — which was exactly what Franklin was trying to accomplish. These connects made between Pennock’s writing and Benjamin Franklin’s, made me question whether most people tend to practice, and try to perfect their scientific virtues, or if they just believe that they will just get them from nature? I think that most of the scientific community — mainly scientists— need to be aware of the practicing and perfecting that needs to be done, in order to make these scientific virtues habitual and, in the long run, helpful.
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Caitlin papaThis is where I will post my blogs for the readings done in LB 492. Archives
November 2016
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