Peter Howard Jones (MA, FRSA, FRSE, FSA), philosopher, was born in London on 18 December 1935. He was educated at Highgate School, London and at Queen’s College, Cambridge. He graduated MA and was a research student at Cambridge in 1961-1963.

Jones began his teaching career as an assistant lecturer in philosophy at Nottingham University (1963-1964). He then served as a lecturer in philosophy at the University of Edinburgh (1964-1977), as a reader in philosophy (1977-1984), and as a professor of philosophy (1984-1998). In addition, Jones held the position of director at the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, Edinburgh University, from 1986 to 2000, and he was a trustee of the National Museums of Scotland from 1987 to 1999. He delivered a set of six Gifford Lectures ‘Science and Religion Before and After Hume’ in Aberdeen in 1994; the set was not published.

Jones’ chief research interests are the Scottish Enlightenment and aesthetics, especially the aesthetics of the Enlightenment period.

He is married, and he and his wife, Elizabeth Jean, have two daughters.

Jones' principal publications include Philosophy and the Novel (1975), Hume's Sentiments (1982), and Ove Arup–Masterbuilder of the Twentieth Century (2006). In addition he has edited or co-edited a number of multiauthored books on the Enlightenment, including Philosophy and Science in the Scottish Enlightenment (1988), Adam Smith Reviewed (1992), and The Enlightenment World(2004).