John Robison

John Robison (February 4, 1739 - January 30, 1805) was a Scottish mechanical philosopher who was variously employed on the Board of Longitude (1762), as a professor of Chemistry at the University of Glasgow (1766-1770), a mathematics instructor to the Naval Cadet Corps at Kronstadt, Russia (1770-1773), professor of Natural Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh (1773-), and General Secretary of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (1783-1798).

In his later years, Robison became a strident anti-Mason and conspiracy theorist, publishing a treatise entitled Proofs of a Conspiracy Against All the Religions and Governments of Europe, Carried on in Secret Meetings of Free Masons, Illuminati, and Reading Societies (Edinburgh, 1797).

on Mechanical Philosophy

 * {{citation |first=John |last=Robison |title=Outlines of a Course of Lectures on Mechanical Philosophy, Edinburgh, J. Brown, 1803.
 * {{citation |first=John |last=Robison |title=Elements of Mechanical Philosophy: Being the Substance of a Course of Lectures on that Science |loaction=Edinburgh |publisher=Archibald Constable |year=1804 }}
 * {{citation |first=John |last=Robison |title=A System of Mechanical Philosophy |volume=2-4 |location=Edinburgh |publisher=J. Murray |year=1822 }}
 * {{citation |first=John |last=Robison |title=Elements of Mechanical Philosophy: Being the Substance of a Course of Lectures on that Science |loaction=Edinburgh |publisher=Archibald Constable |year=1804 }}
 * {{citation |first=John |last=Robison |title=A System of Mechanical Philosophy |volume=2-4 |location=Edinburgh |publisher=J. Murray |year=1822 }}