Question

During the Enlightenment, Americans like Benjamin Franklin were interested in writing about Group of answer choices praising God and looking for signs of His grace. perfecting one’s self and helping others. creating fiction and entertaining one’s self and others. seeking joy to its excess and befriending the English.

Answer 1

During the Enlightenment, Benjamin Franklin and others were focused on perfecting one’s self and helping others, aligning with Enlightenment principles of personal and societal improvement. The correct answer is perfecting one’s self and helping others

Step-by-step explanation:

During the Enlightenment, Americans like Benjamin Franklin were interested in perfecting one’s self and helping others. This period was marked by a focus on personal improvement, social betterment, and an interest in the relationship between citizens and governments, as seen in the writings of John Locke and other Enlightenment thinkers that influenced the Founding Fathers.

Franklin's own contributions as a writer, inventor, and statesman exemplified the Enlightenment ideals of inquiry, tolerance, and the promotion of practical knowledge, which included establishing important civic institutions and advocating for the principles of self-improvement and philanthropy.

Franklin's interest lay not in purely fictional or excessive pursuits, but rather in practical wisdom and civic virtue. For instance, his famous publication, Poor Richard's Almanack, offered readers practical advice and reflected Enlightenment values of self-reliance and rational thought. In juxtaposition to the Enlightenment era's focus on reason and progress, the Great Awakening was a period of religious revival, yet both movements, despite their differing goals, revealed the practical and pragmatic nature of American colonists and led to overall positive developments within American society.