Alexander Bain (philosopher)

Alexander Bain (1818 to 1903) was a Scottish philosopher and educator of the British empiricist school who helped turn the study of the mind into a scientific psychology. Born in Aberdeen, he left school at eleven to work as a weaver, yet became a friend and collaborator of John Stuart Mill and helped revise Mill's System of Logic. His books The Senses and the Intellect (1855) and The Emotions and the Will (1859) made his reputation, and his Logic of 1870 built on Mill while differing from him in many particulars. In 1860 he took the new Regius Chair of Logic at the University of Aberdeen, where he also taught moral philosophy and English literature, wrote widely used English grammars and was twice elected Lord Rector. In 1876 he founded Mind, the first journal of psychology and analytical philosophy. He should not be confused with the Scottish clockmaker of the same name.