James Beattie was born in Laurencekirk, Scotland, on October 25, 1735. He received an MA at Marischal College, Aberdeen, in 1753, became schoolmaster at the Fordoun Parish Church, and in 1760 was appointed Professor of Moral Philosophy and Logic at Marischal College. He was a member of the Aberdeen Philosophical Society with Thomas Reid and other notable Scottish writers. Beattie was known internationally as both a philosopher and poet. His principal philosophical contribution is An Essay on the Nature and Immutability of Truth (1770), for which he was awarded a yearly pension of £200 by King George III. His relentless attacks on David Hume in that work sparked a controversy that permanently linked his name with Hume's. He was ill much of his life and endured the progressive insanity of his wife and the early death of his children. He died on August 18, 1803.

Beattie's Essay is an interesting critique of...