[1] He was born in Edinburgh the son of John Burnet, advocate, and his wife Jessie, daughter of Dr James Cleghorn Kay RN.
[3] Burnet was educated at the Royal High School, Edinburgh, then University of Edinburgh, before winning a scholarship to Balliol College, Oxford, where he obtained first-class honours in Classical Moderations (Greek and Latin) in 1885 and in Literae Humaniores ('Greats', a combination of philosophy and ancient history) in 1887.
[6] After taking his degree in 1887 Burnet became an assistant to Lewis Campbell at the University of St. Andrews.
[9] For a term prior to his St Andrews professorship, he served as Interim Professor of Humanity (Latin) at the University of Edinburgh.
His interest in philosophy and in Plato in particular seems to have begun during his service as assistant to Lewis Campbell at St.
His commentaries on Plato's Euthyphro, Apology, and Crito and on the Phaedo also remain widely used and respected by scholars.
Myles Burnyeat, for example, calls Burnet's Plato: Euthyphro, Apology of Socrates, Crito "the still unsurpassed edition".