 Gershom Carmichael (1672–1729) studied at Edinburgh University (1687–1691), taught at St Andrews University (1693–1694), and spent the rest of his life at Glasgow, first as a regent in arts and then as professor of moral philosophy. He was a main conduit into Scotland of the European natural law tradition, a tradition of scientific investigation of human nature with a view to constructing an account of the principles that are morally binding on us. Among the great figures of that tradition were Hugo Grotius (1583–1645) and Samuel Pufendorf (1632–1694), thinkers whose writings played a major role in moral philosophical activity in Scotland during the Age of Enlightenment.