Great Lessons

The Sacred Book of Nature

The following excerpt from Benjamin Franklin's The Art of Virtue provides valuable insight into the importance of character based learning and a key to creating effective character based lessons.   

In the summer of 1730 the Pennsylvania Gazette published two dialogues written by Benjamin Franklin titled Dialogues Concerning Virtue and Pleasure. The dialogues consist of conversations between Horatio, a lover of pleasure, and Philocles, a wise philosopher. In the first dialogue, Horatio admits to Philocles that his indiscriminate pursuit of pleasure has caused him a great deal of trouble. Admiring Philocles’ freedom from similar cares, Horatio wishes to know his secret. Near the end of their conversation, Philocles explains to Horatio:

      The chief faculty in man is his reason, His chief good, or that which may be justly called his good, consists in reasonable action. By reasonable actions we understand those actions which are preservative of the human kind and naturally tend to produce real and unmixed happiness; and these actions, by way of distinction, we call actions morally good.

   Horatio:  You speak very clearly, Philocles; but, that no difficulty may remain on my mind, pray tell me what is the real difference between natural good and evil and moral good and evil.

   Philocles:  The difference lies only in this: natural good and evil are pleasure and pain; moral good and evil are pleasure or pain produced with intention and design; for it is the intention only that makes the agent morally good or bad.

   Horatio:  But may not a man with a very good intention do an evil action?

   Philocles:  Yes; but then he errs in his judgment, though his design be good. If his error is inevitable, or such as, all things considered, he could not help, he is inculpable; but if it arose through want of diligence in forming his judgment about the nature of human actions, he is immoral and culpable.

   Horatio:  I find, then, that in order to please ourselves rightly, or to do good to others morally, we should take great care of our opinions.

   Philocles:  Nothing concerns you more; for as the happiness or real good of men consists in right action, and right action cannot be produced without right opinion, it behooves us, above all things in this world, to take care that our own opinions of things be according to the nature of things. The foundation of all virtue and happiness is thinking rightly. He who sees an action is right—that is, naturally tending to good and does it because of that tendency, he only is a moral man; and he alone is capable of that constant, durable, and invariable good which has been the subject of this conversation.

   Horatio:  How, my dear philosophical guide, shall I be able to know, and determine certainly, what is right and wrong in life?

   Philocles:  As easily as you distinguish a circle from a square, or light from darkness. Look, Horatio, into the sacred book of nature; read your own nature, and view the relation which other men stand in to you, and you to them, and you will immediately see what constitutes human happiness, and consequently what is right.5

Four Points:

1. The real good of man consists in right action.
2. Right action cannot be produced without right opinion
3. Right opinions are opinions that accord with nature of things, and
4. Right opinion cannot be obtained without right thinking

While there are those that may chafe at the notion of "right opinions" or even "right thinking", epecially when espoused by someone who holds different opinions than themelves, it is doubtful that anyone would argue that all opinions are equally valid or equally beneficial.

If our goal in teaching young people is to provide them with the tools they need to form "right opinions" we need to teach them how to "think rightly"—which is to teach them how to think for themselves. Hence, a critical ingredient of character based learning is helping them develop the thinking skills necessary to look at the sacred book of nature and understand what they are seeing.

This is also a valuable key in preparing character based lessons. If we can get them to see the nature of an act or thought, whether its natural tendency is to improve or injure the human condition, then we are well on the way to helping them make right choices.