Benjamin Franklin: Rationalist

A Good example of how Benjamin Franklin was a Rationalist, is how he made a list of virtues to live his life by. He focused on things that he felt needed improvement, and improved upon them. One of his virtues was humility. A Puritan who wanted to achieve humility would probably just plead to God to help them achieve humility. He on the other hand, thought of people who he believed to be good examples of humility, and tried to be like them. His thirteenth virtue said simply "Humility: imitate Jesus and Socrates". He worked to make himself into the person he wanted to be.