Robert Flint was a Scottish theologian

Theology

Theology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...

 and philosopher, who wrote also on sociology

Sociology

Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...

.

He was born near Dumfries

Dumfries

Dumfries is a market town and former royal burgh within the Dumfries and Galloway council area of Scotland. It is near the mouth of the River Nith into the Solway Firth. Dumfries was the county town of the former county of Dumfriesshire. Dumfries is nicknamed Queen of the South...

 and educated, at the University of Glasgow

University of Glasgow

The University of Glasgow is the fourth-oldest university in the English-speaking world and one of Scotland's four ancient universities. Located in Glasgow, the university was founded in 1451 and is presently one of seventeen British higher education institutions ranked amongst the top 100 of the...

. After a few years of pastoral service, first in Aberdeen

Aberdeen

Aberdeen is Scotland's third most populous city, one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas and the United Kingdom's 25th most populous city, with an official population estimate of ....

 and then at Kilconquhar, Fife

Fife

Fife is a council area and former county of Scotland. It is situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with inland boundaries to Perth and Kinross and Clackmannanshire...

, he was appointed professor of moral philosophy and political economy

Political economy

Political economy originally was the term for studying production, buying, and selling, and their relations with law, custom, and government, as well as with the distribution of national income and wealth, including through the budget process. Political economy originated in moral philosophy...

 at St. Andrews in 1864.

From 1876 to 1903 he was professor of divinity at the University of Edinburgh

University of Edinburgh

The University of Edinburgh, founded in 1583, is a public research university located in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The university is deeply embedded in the fabric of the city, with many of the buildings in the historic Old Town belonging to the university...

.

In 1904, Philosophy as Scientia Scientarum was published in which Flint argues that philosophy is the science of sciences responsible for discerning the rational and natural relationship among the sciences. He believed that the sciences "form a whole, a system in which each of them has its appropriate place..." (p. 7).

Works

• Christ's Kingdom upon Earth (1865) sermons
• Philosophy of History in France and Germany (1874)
• Theism (1877) Baird Lectures 1876/7
• Anti-Theistic Theories (1879) Baird Lectures 1876/7
• Vico
  Giambattista Vico
  Giovanni Battista ' Vico or Vigo was an Italian political philosopher, rhetorician, historian, and jurist....
  
  (1884)
• Historical Philosophy in France (1894)
• Socialism (1894)
• Sermons and Addresses (1899)
• Agnosticism (1903)
• Philosophy as scientia scientarum (1904)