“We hold these truths to be self-evident. {Franklin's edit to the assertion in Thomas Jefferson's original wording, 'We hold these truths to be sacred and undeniable' in a draft of the Declaration of Independence changes it instead into an assertion of rationality. The scientific mind of Franklin drew on the scientific determinism of Isaac Newton and the analytic empiricism of David Hume and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. In what became known as 'Hume's Fork' the latters' theory distinguished between synthetic truths that describe matters of fact, and analytic truths that are self-evident by virtue of reason and definition.}” ReasonScienceRightsRationalityNewtonDeclaration Of IndependenceDeterminismTruthsEmpiricismHumeThomas JeffersonIsaac NewtonLeibnizDavid HumeJeffersonGottfried LeibnizGottfried Wilhelm LeibnizAnalytic Author:Benjamin Franklin