Samuel Johnson: American's First Philosopher: His Life, Correspondence, and Presidency of Columbia University

FAIN: FB-11559-73

Lloyd F. Dean
Community College of Rhode Island (Warwick, RI 02886-1805)

To research the original papers of Samuel Johnson (1696-1772), American philosopher. Johnson's philosophy represents an attempt to move away from Platonism and Calvinism of New England in the early 1700s. As such, it interacts with the growing influence of the deists and free thinkers. Idealsim, naturalism, nationalism, and even pragmatism (cf. Franklin) are all involved in Johnson's attempt to find a new philosophic way in the wilderness.