James Seth was born in Edinburgh in 1860. He studied Moral Philosophy before going on to Divinity and ordination at New College, University of Edinburgh, choosing to go on to university teaching rather than practising as a minister.

Seth's first academic post was in Canada in 1886, where he was appointed Professor of Metaphysics at Dalhousie College in Halifax. He went on in 1892 to Brown University, Rhode Island, and then to Cornell University in 1896, where he was Sage Professor, and editor of the prestigious journal, The Philosophical Review.

Seth relocated to Edinburgh in October 1898 on the death of his former teacher, Henry Calderwood, and was appointed Chair of Moral Philosophy, a position he held for 26 years until his death; for much of this time, the corresponding Chair of Logic and Metaphysics was occupied by his brother Andrew Seth Pringle-Pattisson. He was an active campaigner on temperance and education. Seth's inaugural lecture on ‘The Scottish Contribution to Moral Philosophy’ was published in Novermber 1898 in The Philosophical Review, the journal he edited. Other publications include: A Study of Ethical Principles , Blackwood and Charles Scribner, 1894, and Essays in Ethics and Religion with other papers , William Blackwood, Edinburgh and London, 1926.

Seth believed that the academic moralist should, above all, be a good citizen, and he cared deeply about civic betterment and social responsibility, campaigning (for example) for the Minority Report to the Poor Law. he played a key role in setting up the School of Social Study and Training, keen to train social workers with the knowledge and skill they would need to deal with what was then known as ‘social ill-health’. Hence he was part of the provisional committee that formed on 30th March 1917, and by the time of the first Annual Report (1917-18), he was described as the Honorary Secretary. Seth delivered a lecture course on Social Ethics to the first year students each year from 1918 until his sudden death in July 1924; this was reported in the Eighth Annual Report (1924-25) as "a great loss".

Source: Institute for the Study of Scottish Philosophy; also Edinburgh University Annual Reports.