James Mylne (

Kinnaird, Gowrie Kinnaird ( gd, An Ceann Àrd, "high headland") is a village in Gowrie, Perthshire, Scotland. It is notable for its 15th-century castle. The four-storeyed Kinnaird Castle was a stronghold of the Threiplands of Fingask, a local Jacobitism, Jacobit ...

, 3 September 1757 – 21 September 1839) was a Scottish

philosopher A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...

and academic who was born in

Perthshire Perthshire (locally: ; gd, Siorrachd Pheairt), officially the County of Perth, is a historic county and registration county in central Scotland. Geographically it extends from Strathmore in the east, to the Pass of Drumochter in the north, ...

in 1757 and educated at the

University of St Andrews (Aien aristeuein) , motto_lang = grc , mottoeng = Ever to ExcelorEver to be the Best , established = , type = Public research university Ancient university , endowment ...

. He served as Professor of Moral Philosophy at the

University of Glasgow , image = UofG Coat of Arms.png , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms Flag , latin_name = Universitas Glasguensis , motto = la, Via, Veritas, Vita , ...

from 1797 to 1837. His father-in-law was the philosopher John Millar and the philosopher

James McCosh James McCosh (April 1, 1811 – November 16, 1894) was a philosopher of the Scottish School of Common Sense. He was president of Princeton University 1868–88. Biography McCosh was born into a Covenanting family in Ayrshire, and ...

was among his students. He was a member of the

Glasgow Literary Society The Glasgow Literary Society (GLS) was founded in 1753, as a forum for intellectual discussions and debates. It met every Thursday from November to May. It was associated with the University of Glasgow and the Glasgow tobacco lords. Along with ...

. He was also the great-uncle of

Frances Wright Frances Wright (September 6, 1795 – December 13, 1852), widely known as Fanny Wright, was a Scottish-born lecturer, writer, freethinker, feminist, utopian socialist, abolitionist, social reformer, and Epicurean philosopher, who became a ...

, who lived with him for a time. Mylne is the subject of a biography, ''Rational Piety and Social Reform in Glasgow'' (Wipf and Stock, 2015), by Dr Stephen Cowley. Mylne's philosophy was a theistic empiricism and he regarded utility as the primary measure of morality. He found a larger place for reason in mental life than his predecessors at Glasgow Francis Hutcheson and Thomas Reid, of the moral sense and common sense schools respectively. Mylne also lectured on political economy at the University of Glasgow from a standpoint generally sympathetic to Adam Smith. Politically he was a Whig. Some of his notes in manuscript are held by the Special Collections Department of the Library of the University of Glasgow. Other student notes are held by the

Mitchell Library The Mitchell Library is a large public library and centre of the City Council public library system of Glasgow, Scotland. History The library, based in the Charing Cross district, was initially established in Ingram Street in 1877 following a ...

, Glasgow, New College Library, Edinburgh and the

National Library of Scotland The National Library of Scotland (NLS) ( gd, Leabharlann Nàiseanta na h-Alba, sco, Naitional Leebrar o Scotland) is the legal deposit library of Scotland and is one of the country's National Collections. As one of the largest libraries in the ...

, Edinburgh.

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External links

The University of Glasgow
Academics of the University of Glasgow Alumni of the University of St Andrews Scottish scholars and academics Scottish philosophers 1757 births 1839 deaths 19th-century British philosophers {{Scotland-academic-bio-stub