Robert E. Spiller, "Benjamin Franklin: Student of Life," 83-103: Franklin as a pre-pragmatist, a natural philosopher, not to be understood as a systematic one. Franklin's rejection of naive system-building, 86. Science rather than metaphysics as the subject of inquiry, 87 ff. Dewey's pragmatism in education stems from Franklin, 89-90. Franklin as adaptable to circumstance, 90. Comments on Lawrence, 91-92. Good characterization of Franklin as experimenter in life, towards moral perfection, but never preaching it as though he had already achieved it, 93-94. (Should have brought up HABIT here: "acquired art," 95, is close.) Franklin is also not a hypocritical moralist debaucher; the iconoclasts go too far, 95. Stretches the political side, 96 end. On religion (section 5, 96 ff.): pragmatism over dogmatism; he downplays Franklin's God a bit unfairly. The American context of frontier-movement pragmatism, 99-100--argues that the original settlers were long on practicality and short on systematic theology, 100-01. But why bring in Emerson, 101? VERDICT: Spiller helps us remember that Franklin is a pre-pragmatist, which we already more or less knew. The real advance is linking up Emerson (if true) and William James and Dewey to the same tradition in which Benjamin Franklin took part.

Bernhard Knollenberg, "Benjamin Franklin: Philosophical Revolutionist," 127-133: Franklin's philosophical leanings--here, abstract reasoning--led him into revolutionary ideas and practices, in politics, religion, and science. "The question: Is the existing way the sound way, never ceased to ring in his ears," 130. Benjamin Franklin writes against private property having special representation in government, 132 (Knollenberg rightly sees this as pre-Marxist, as I intuit elsewhere). VERDICT: Shows us that Franklin is consistent in his revolutionariness.

Lawrence Wroth, "Benjamin Franklin: The Printer at Work," 151-178: Benjamin Franklin learned about and took part in advances in typographical execution in London, and added to these after coming back to Philadelphia. Wroth takes a long time to say little else that is new. Good audit to find out the circulation of the Pa. Gazette as about 1,600-1,700, 162-64. Franklin gets into the ink and paper industries--esp. paper, in a big way, 166-67. Casts his own type in Passy, 171-72. Franklin's terse title pages, rather than putting there "a complete synopsis of the text," 174-75. VERDICT: Mostly typographical data, boring.