Around 1730, Benjamin Franklin listed thirteen virtues which he said gave a meaningful direction for a fulfilled life. These virtues included tranquility, humility, chastity, cleanliness, moderation, justice, sincerity, industry, frugality, resolution, order, silence and temperance. Benjamin Franklin further divided these virtues into those that dealt with personal behavior and those that dealt with traits related to social character. Chastity as a social trait implied in Benjamin’s viewpoint that indulgence in or pursuit of sexual activity should aim at getting offspring and for health. In his viewpoint sexual activity should not bring about any weakness or dullness or disturb other’s reputation and peace.
Society today does not attach much value to chastity as a virtue in the present times since it has now become difficult to associate chastity with the current practices of mankind except that it may sometimes relate to certain relationships with religious beliefs. In the sexualized society of today, people perceive the promotion of chastity as old fashioned and a formal kind of impractical practice. Promoting chastity and adopting it as a way of life does not gel with people’s values systems now, who think of it as quite a traditional way of life and consequently few people follow such advice.
Society can improve virtue in regard to chastity by looking at it from a different view point. People should refrain from viewing sexuality as the frequency with which a man has sex or the number of women with whom he sleeps, and should focus on a man’s sexuality in relationships that prove to be meaningful in life. There is no reason to believe that sex in the present context has linkages and associations with something sacred; people must look at it with an attitude of having a special experience. By making it special, it implies that people should place certain boundaries around sex in order to make it a cherished activity, and not what one can go and purchase for pleasure. Although the extents of such boundaries do vary from person to person, stronger reasons warrant the prevention of sex beyond a certain limit.
Society needs to place more value on virtue in encouraging chastity in the present-day context to enable people to understand the advantages and meaning behind what Benjamin Franklin intended to advise. Most people understand that casual sex does not prepare one for sex in an authentic and real relationship. A healthy sexual relationship essentially requires effective communication and the willingness to sacrifice one’s pleasure for the cause of the partner. On the other hand, casual sex entails no real communication between partners and becomes merely an act to satisfy each other’s sexual urge and the real pleasure of sex remains absent. If people save their sexual activity for marriage, it will lead to a more fulfilled life.
While chastity is a virtue became much relevant during the time of Benjamin Franklin, it has become less applicable in the modern world in view of the vast changes that have occurred in the human value systems. Permissiveness has gained momentum quite fast amongst almost all cultures in the world, and the extent of such immorality has increased to such an extent that it requires a check in order to bring better quality of relationships. Chastity as defined by Benjamin Franklin makes it difficult to practice in its entirety in the modern world in terms of limiting sexual relationships for purposes of having offspring and health; certainly, there is a possibility for improvements in moral values to bring about better quality of relationships that result in building higher levels of moral character in human beings.
References
Benjamin Franklin, The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, 1996, Dover Publications.