Journal #6

1. Explain what was involved in Franklin’s plan for self-perfection? What conclusion did Franklin come to regarding the effectiveness of this plan?

Every one of his tools all built on one another meaning that the one before always helped the one that came after it to succeed. You can't have silence without temperance; you can't have order without silence, and so on. All of these virtues relate to one another and without all of them you will not have true success in your life. He began everyday saying what good could I do today and then went off that. He planned out his whole day in a 24 hour block using different hours for different thing like work, sleep, and a 1 hour lunch. And then at the end of the day he would ask himself what good have I don’t today? He came to the conclusion that if you plan your day out you can get a lot more done then if you just went with the way that your body told you to do things. You need a certain schedule to succeed.

2. Do you feel that a plan such as Franklin’s would improve you as a person? Why or why not? What would be your top five virtues?

I think that a plan like that would improve me as a person because instead of procrastinating all the time I would have specific times to get stuff like work done fully so I could then use the rest of the time for stuff that I enjoy doing. This would give me the freedom to not have to worry about getting the work done while I am trying to have a good time so I can just enjoy the time that I have on this earth and never waste it. Everyday would have a purpose to me if I woke up saying what amazing things could I accomplish today? My top 5 virtues are first cleanliness because you can't get anything done in a dirty environment, moderation because you never want to do anything too much because it could be unhealthy, humility because you can't always think that you have the answer to things and everybody need help sometimes, sincerity because everyone needs friends to help them get through life, and finally and order because without order it is almost impossible to be productive.

Journal #5

1. Identify the specific argument that Paine is making in each paragraph. For each of the arguments, identify whether Paine is making an emotional, ethical, or logical appeal and suggest an effective counterargument.

#1. If this was going to be easy we would not value the freedom and victory as much. The English did grant everything you have now including your freedom in the colonies. Emotional and logical because they were put under slavery by England and are supposed to be getting freedom when they moved to America. How can you be sure that the colonists will win? I mean the British are a lot more powerful than the colonists.

#2. God will not let us lose. He thinks that God will help them because they tried to avoid the war in every way possible. This is ethical because he is saying that we did the right thing in trying to avoid the war at all costs. We are good and they are evil. Maybe God won’t support them because He doesn’t want war at all.

#3. If we don’t fight now then our children will not have peace and are going to have to fight the war. Emotional because it involves the children of them. Ethical because they are saying the parents aren’t good parents unless they fight. Logical because a war will need to be fought sooner or later. We should not fight because eventually things will work themselves out. Fighting the war will cause families to be torn away by death and things could get worse for the children if the parents fight.

#4. We want to have this war because it is not offensive. It is ok to fight them if they initiate the war but not if we go over to Britain and fight them. The English are like thieves so we need to protect ourselves from them. It is emotional because it deals with how people view Great Britain as thieves. It is logical because if people are invading you it is logical to fight back. Their army is so much greater than ours so we will probably die trying to fight them. And if they lost Britain would treat them worse than they already were.

2. Can you identify any of the logical fallacies that we discussed in Paine’s arguments? If so, which ones? Overall, what do you feel are the strengths and weaknesses of Paine’s arguments?

a. Sentimental appeal and Faulty Analogy

b. Begging the question

c. Faulty Dichotomy

d. Argument by Analogy, Faulty Analogy because they are comparing Britain to thieves.

Thomas Paine is very persuasive when it comes to the emotional and ethical appeals to make something that might not be true correct. He however does not make a logical argument.