The thesis entitled Benjamin Franklin: Development of Religious and Ethical Theories is a chronological survey of Franklin's attitudes toward both religion and ethics. Franklin's early attitudes toward religion are traced in Chapter One from youth through subsequent periods of re-evaluation, modification to the conservative Deism he embraced late in life. Franklin's participation in projects to revise, modernize, and modify scripture, prayers and church services is evaluated in the light of his growing religious refinement and sophistication. Considerable attention is paid to the recent scholarship in this area by Carl Van Doren, D. H. Lawrence and Herbert W. Schneider. Franklin's philosophy of utilitarian ethics is the subject of Chapter 'Two. The formulation of Franklin's ethical theory is described from his early four "fundamental virtues" to his ambitious "Art of Virtue," an attempt to achieve moral perfection. Scholarly criticism of Franklin's "Art of Virtue" is surveyed and evaluated, and explanations of apparent contradictions between religious beliefs and Franklin's practice of ethics are proposed.The third and final chapter deals with Franklin's utilitarian pragmatic system of ethics as evidenced in Poor Richard's Almanac, including the highly controversial tract "The Way toWealth." An attempt is made to interpret Franklin's attitudes with greater objectivity than the recent impulsive criticisms of D. H. Lawrence and Charles Angoff. The thesis ends with an analysis reconciling a number of Franklin positions often erroneously interpreted as either contradictory or "hypocritical," giving appropriate credit to Franklin for his development of a unified, practical and workable system of ethics based upon his unique interpretation of Deism.

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In the American press, news publishers and advertisers have enjoyed a close relationship well before the birth of our nation. When Benjamin Franklin bought The Pennsylvania Gazette in 1729, he became the owner of a communications platform and printed both information and advertisements. Today, news publishers and tech companies like Facebook and Twitter do the same—they publish and distribute news and commercial messages. Organizations like The New York Times and Washington Post produce more than news stories. News outlets have new departments—branded content studios, product marketing teams, and innovation teams—that are dedicated to creating and placing marketing messages beneath our gaze as we turn the physical page of a paper or scroll, click, and tap our screens throughout the day. This dissertation examines how advertisers aim to invisibly inject their messages into and alongside news stories by investigating the relationship between the business and newsroom side of various news publications. The research methodology is qualitative and draws upon over 125 interviews with people who work at news organizations, ad agencies, media and tech companies. This dissertation has a simple premise: compare the words of CEOs, executive leadership, and mission statements with the actions of news organizations to identify where discrepancies exist between the core tenets of journalism and its practice.

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