 Lindsay was educated from 1887 at the Glasgow Academy, then at the University of Glasgow, where he gained a Master of Arts degree in 1899, and lastly at University College, Oxford, where he took a Double First in 1902.In 1903 he won the Shaw fellowship in moral philosophy at the University of Edinburgh, as had his father, the first recipient of this award.He was assistant lecturer in philosophy at the Victoria University of Manchester from 1904–1906, when he was elected a fellow and tutor in philosophy at Balliol College, Oxford.