From John Locke’s “Human Understanding,” the only and most efficient way to understand and learn is from personal experiences and sensations.  Sensations and feelings are the foundation of our knowledge. While books can spark curiosity, action is what engraves into our minds. John Locke’s idea of learning has many relations to Benjamin Franklin and his study.

Benjamin Franklin created a theory for moral perfection. Virtues that are ideal characteristics of someone morally perfect. But to conduct these studies, he used himself as a test subject to explain his reasoning. In using himself as a subject and studying himself, he was able to learn and understand the ideas of being morally perfect. Using himself as a test is a prime example of learning for experiences and sensations. Franklin spent one week testing out each of the thirteen virtues, “My intention being to acquire the habitude of all these virtues, I judg’d it would be well not to distract my attention by attempting the whole at once, but to fix it on one of them at a time; and, when I should be master of that, then to proceed to another, and so on, till I should have gone thro’ the thirteen…” (Franklin 66). In doing so, it supported his selection of the thirteen virtues that were from his readings and studies. However, by conducting the study on himself, he converted the words from the book to knowledge, “[Franklin can] gain knowledge at the same time that I improv’d in virtue”(Franklin 66). From practicing the virtues he better understand each virtue. Franklin particularly found order difficult. It was difficult to be on a schedule but even worse, it was difficult to keep everything in the right place and neat. From that here learned the significance of order.

After testing out the all the virtues Franklin states, “I was surpris’d to find myself so much fuller of faults than I had imagined” (Franklin 67). He was able to judge himself based on his research. I believe that Locke would have agreed with Franklin’s method and approach to explain/prove his virtues for moral perfection. While books are not bad, they are not always right; but by exploring the virtue themselves, Franklin is able to better understand the virtues and moral perfection. It is the experience that he got that has given him the knowledge for moral perfection.