I found Franklin’s work, “A Dissertation on Liberty and Necessity, Pleasure, and Pain” quite compelling. Written almost 300 years ago, the ideas that Franklin illustrates in the piece certainly hold weight in our current discussion of understanding “the general State of Things in the Universe” (57). The battle between good and evil amongst mankind, the ideas of free-will and desire, and the connection between pleasure and pain, are all discussed.
The idea that if God is all-powerful, and that if he is good and wise, is juxtaposed with the idea that nothing evil in the world would be able to exist if these were the true characteristics of the almighty. Essentially, “there is nothing done in the universe…but what God either does, or permits to be done” (58). This assertion by Franklin brings up many powerful and definitely personal questions regarding one’s religious beliefs. Religion is of course a very touchy topic in conversation, so to assert an idea that bad things can’t exist if we presume that a God also exists thus means that God does not exist (since bad things do obviously happen). I find that challenging ideas of religion (such as the existence of God, etc.) at this time is the epitome of what the Enlightenment stood for. The time period consisted of many intelligent individuals challenging the status quo of beliefs and presuming that maybe there were others ways to view the world and what occurred within it.
Another interesting idea Franklin brings up is that of the relationship between pleasure and pain. He states that, “the Sensation of Pleasure is equal, or in exact proportion to the Sensation of Pain” (65). I find this idea very intriguing as one often does not think about the relationship between these two sensations. For example, often we must feel some sort of pain to feel some sort of pleasure within our lives. As Franklin believed, the highest form of pleasure was that of the freedom of all pain. This seems right on point for if we had absolutely no pain in our lives (i.e. no physical hurt, no emotional hurt, no mental anxiety) then our existence would essentially be that of a constant state of euphoria and happiness. I'm not quite sure how Franklin's discussion of pleasure and pain ties into his views on religion besides maybe God being the almighty controller of the universe? However, both ideas certainly challenged views held during the Enlightenment period and spark debate.
