The self-taught son of a weaver, Bain eventually enrolled in Marischal College, in Aberdeen, and became a radical follower of J. S. Mill. He was appointed professor of logic and rhetoric at Aberdeen in 1860, and in 1876 founded the journal Mind. His main works are The Senses and the Intellect (1855), The Emotions and the Will (1859), and the later Manual of Rhetoric (1870). He is remembered as an associationist, although in many respects he rejected associationist psychology, and his most original work is probably that on the will. His thought that a belief is but a preparation for action is respected by both pragmatism and functionalism.