This essay underlines how the idea of Franklin's work does not correspond to the interpretation developed by Max Weber: on the one hand it was combined with the enhancement of free time and, on the other, as Sombart had pointed out, it was not an end to itself from an ascetic point of view, but rationalistically linked to the idea of personal virtue and the republican common good. Franklin is however at the origins of a modern bourgeois idea of private work as a factor of autonomy and civilization. On this basis he developed independentist ideas, identifying parasitic rent in the English aristocratic culture; but also his colonialist civilizing vision of Native Americans, despite his anti-slavery stance.
University for Foreigners of Perugia, Italy - ORCID: 0000-0001-8902-9122
Chapter Title
Non solo per profitto. L’idea del lavoro in Benjamin Franklin
Authors
Salvatore Cingari
Language
Italian
DOI
10.36253/979-12-215-0319-7.68
Peer Reviewed
Publication Year
2024
Copyright Information
© 2024 Author(s)
Content License
Metadata License
Book Title
Idee di lavoro e di ozio per la nostra civiltà
Editors
Giovanni Mari, Francesco Ammannati, Stefano Brogi, Tiziana Faitini, Arianna Fermani, Francesco Seghezzi, Annalisa Tonarelli
Peer Reviewed
Number of Pages
1894
Publication Year
2024
Copyright Information
© 2024 Author(s)
Content License
Metadata License
Publisher Name
Firenze University Press
DOI
10.36253/979-12-215-0319-7
ISBN Print
979-12-215-0245-9
eISBN (pdf)
979-12-215-0319-7
eISBN (epub)
979-12-215-0320-3
Series Title
Studi e saggi
Series ISSN
2704-6478
Series E-ISSN
2704-5919