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Alexander Bain, 1818-1903.
Scottish mathematician, utilitarian philosopher and early psychologist.
Educated at Aberdeen, where he showed early promise. In 1845, Alexander Bain was appointed Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy at the University of Glasgow. But finding academic life constricting, Bain resigned after the first year. He moved to London in 1848, where became involved in the utilitarian circle of John Stuart Mill and George Grote. He had already been writing for the Westminster Review since 1840 and assisted Mill in various editorial tasks.
Alexander Bain's principal works are his Senses and the Intellect (1855) and Emotions and the Will (1859), two treatises in psychophysiology, which cemented his reputation as an early father of psychology.
In 1860, Alexander Bain was appointed to the chair in Logic and English at the University of Aberdeen, which he would retain until the end of his life. He dedicated himself to pedagogy, composing several popular textbooks on grammar and rhetoric, that went through various editions, and positioning himself as an educational reformer (e.g. 1878).
In 1876, Alexander Bain helped found and finance Mind, the first English journal of philosophy and psychology, edited by his former pupil, George Croom-Robertson, at UCL.
In 1876 Bain helped edit the Fragments of George Grote. Then, in 1878, Bain put out a a new edition of James Mill's 1829 Analysis of the Mind. This prompted Bain to go on to write a 1882 biography of the senior Mill and an accompanying volume on the younger Mill. In his later years, Bain edited the papers of Croom-Robertson (1894) and also his own works (1884, 1903) and his own biography (1904). Alexander Bain's memoirs and recollections have proven a useful source for historians investigating intellectual life in 19th C. Britain.
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