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Ben Franklin was a gregarious person, who loved sitting down and having long
conversations with friends and acquaintances. In 1727, Franklin organized a
group of friends to provide a structured forum for discussion. The group,
initially composed of twelve members, called itself the Junto.
The members of the Junto were drawn from diverse occupations and
backgrounds, but they all shared a spirit of inquiry and a desire to improve
themselves, their community, and to help others. Among the original members
were printers, surveyors, a cabinetmaker, a cobbler, a clerk, and a merchant.
Although most of the members were older than Franklin, he was clearly their
leader.
Franklin describes the formation and purpose of the Junto in his autobiography:
I should have mentioned before, that, in the autumn of the preceding year,
[1727] I had form'd most of my ingenious acquaintance into a club of
mutual improvement, which we called the Junto; we met on Friday
evenings. The rules that I drew up required that every member, in his
turn, should produce one or more queries on any point of Morals, Politics,
or Natural Philosophy, to be discuss'd by the company; and once in three
months produce and read an essay of his own writing, on any subject he
pleased. Our debates were to be under the direction of a president, and to
be conducted in the sincere spirit of inquiry after truth, without fondness
for dispute or desire of victory; and to prevent warmth, all expressions of
positiveness in opinions, or direct contradiction, were after some time
made contraband, and prohibited under small pecuniary penalties.
The Junto's Friday evening meetings were organized around a series of
questions that Ben devised, covering a range of intellectual, personal, business,
and community topics. These questions were used as a springboard for
discussion and community action. In fact, through the Junto, Franklin promoted
such concepts as volunteer fire-fighting clubs, improved security (night
watchmen), and a public hospital.
American Philosophical Society
One outgrowth of the Junto was the American Philosophical Society, created in
1743 to "promote useful knowledge in the colonies." Franklin proposed that the
group be comprised of "ingenious men"—a physician, a mathematician, a
geographer, a natural philosopher, a botanist, a chemist, and a "mechanician"
(engineer)—who lived throughout the colonies. The purpose of the group was to
facilitate the sharing of information about discoveries being made in the various
fields.
A respected intellectual institution, the American Philosophical Society still exists
more than 200 years later.
copyright 2002 Twin Cities Public Television, Inc. All rights reserved.
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