Scottish philosophy is a philosophical tradition created by philosophers belonging to Scottish universities. Although many philosophers such as Francis Hutcheson, David Hume, Thomas Reid, and Adam Smith are familiar to almost all philosophers it was not until the 19th century that the notion of 'Scottish philosophy' became recognized and highly regarded internationally. In the 20th century, however, this tradition declined as Scottish-educated philosophers left for England.

Early philosophy served theology, that is the study of god and religion. Naturally, this emphasized the origins of sin and the corruption of human nature. The main topics of medieval philosophy include areas that are still studied in philosophy today. These topics related to the philosophy of religion which was also created during that time. Philosophy of religion contains many traditional philosophical problems that are presently still discussed, these being firstly the problem of the compatibility of the divine attributes. This refers to how that arises when we say that God can be omnipotent (all powerful), omniscient (all knowing), and omnibenevolent (all benevolent). Secondly, the problem of evil, which tries to address the contradiction that arises when explaining the creation of if God is all good and all knowing. Thirdly, the problem of the compatibility of divine foreknowledge with human free will. This is a continuation of the problem of evil as human free will is used to respond to the problem of evil but creates another contradiction with divine foreknowledge.

In the High Middle Ages, a Scottish philosopher, John Duns Scotus (1265-1308) made significant impressions on the areas of natural theology, metaphysics, the theory of knowledge, ethics and moral philosophy. Natural theology is the effort to establish the existence and nature of God through argument. Scotus’s stance on natural theology is that human beings can come to know God in ways apart from revelation. Scotus believes that all our knowledge is derived from our experience of sensible things and from this beginning, we can come to grasp God.

During the 15th century, Scotland established three universities that were to become the foundation of Scottish philosophical tradition, these were University of St Andrews, the University of Glasgow and the University of Aberdeen. Scottish philosophy was compulsory to all university students. While this pre-enlightenment period was primarily focused on the rehabilitation of the philosophy of their predecessors – writings of the Platonic and Aristotelian modes – this period was not without its accomplishments. The invention of the logarithmic tables by John Napier (1550-1617) allowed the development of the sciences, while significant contributions to science were made by other Scots such as James Gregory (1638-75), Robert Sibbald (1641-1722) and Archibald Pitcairne (1652-1713).

In the second half of the 17th century, Scottish universities developed their own form of Cartesianism, influenced in large part by Reformed Scholasticism of the first half of the 17th century. Mention of Descartes first appeared in the graduation theses by regent Andrew Cant for Marischal College, the University of Aberdeen in 1654. Cartesianism was very successful in Scottish universities. Until the end of the 1660s, the universities gradually incorporated occasional Cartesianism themes into the scholastic structure of the curriculum. Later, in the 1670s the curriculum was consolidated and structured according to the order of exposition of the new philosophy.

Scottish philosophy of this time overlaps with the period of Scottish Enlightenment. The Enlightenment was a period of rapid expansion of knowledge in all academic disciplines not limited to philosophy. Scottish philosophers of this time were extensively studied. The prominent ideas of this century include aesthetics, moral philosophy, natural law, rhetoric, common sense philosophy, etc.

The idea of "natural law" can first be found in Supplements and Observations upon Samuel Pufendorf's On the Duty of Man and Citizen according to the Law of Nature by Gershom Carmichael, which says that we are required to do what God prescribes to us as a sign of love and veneration. Failure to act in the prescribed manner is interpreted by God as expressing contempt or hatred. Natural law has two precepts which are distinguished as immediate and mediate duties. The first precept is the idea that we have an immediate duty to worship God so that he may receive our love and veneration for him. The second precept covers our mediate duties of promoting the common good by treating others well. These precepts form the foundation of natural law. The central figure of this narrative is God, hence before the application of the precepts in our duty as worshipers, we must first acknowledge God as the creator and ruler of the universe and all that resides within it.

"Moral philosophy" is the idea that to be morally good one must be motivated by benevolence and a desire for the happiness of others. The idea of moral philosophy was can be traced to Francis Hutcheson's work, A System of Moral Philosophy, in Three Books, first published in Glasgow in 1755. Hutcheson's moral philosophy emerged as a reaction to Hobbes' psychological egoism and Clarke and Wollaston's rationalism. The main objection was to the idea that compassion and benevolence are due to the calculations of self-interest and that people should be discouraged from making others sympathetic towards themselves since this reflected their self-interests and was therefore dishonest. Hutcheson believed that moral knowledge is gained through our moral senses, of which there are three, these senses are separate from our external five senses. The three senses are the public sense, the moral sense and the sense of honour. Public sense refers to how we empathize with the happiness or misery of others. The moral sense is how we perceive the good and bad ourselves and others and our reaction to that manifestation. Sense of honour our reaction of approval or praise when we see or commit a good action. Features of Hutcheson’s moral philosophy appear in his aesthetic theory, particularly his theory of our moral sense of beauty and the pleasure we take in it, which is not simply incidental to perceiving beauty.