Edinburgh Philosophical Society

Royal Society of Edinburgh

Arms of the Royal Society of Edinburgh
Established	1737 – diverged from the Royal Medical Society 1783 – received royal charter
Founder	Colin Maclaurin and Alexander Monro, primus (instrumental in founding the Philosophical Society of Edinburgh) William Cullen, Alexander Monro, secundus and William Robertson (instrumental in obtaining the royal charter)
Focus	Science and technology Arts Humanities Social science Business Public service
Headquarters	22–26 George Street, Edinburgh, EH2 2PQ
Location	New Town, Edinburgh, Scotland
Members	Over 1600 Fellows
Owner	Registered charity No. SC000470
President	Professor Dame Anne Glover
Chief Executive	Dr Rebekah Widdowfield
Key people	Dr. Alison Elliot, General Secretary
Subsidiaries	RSE Scotland Foundation RSE Young Academy of Scotland
Budget	£5.9 million
Staff	34
Website	www.rse.org.uk
Formerly called	Philosophical Society of Edinburgh

The Royal Society of Edinburgh is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity, operating on a wholly independent and non-party-political basis and providing public benefit throughout Scotland. It was established in 1783. As of 2017^[update], it has more than 1,660 Fellows.

The Society covers a broader selection of fields than the Royal Society of London including literature and history. Fellowship includes people from a wide range of disciplines – science & technology, arts, humanities, medicine, social science, business and public service.

At the start of the 18th century, Edinburgh's intellectual climate fostered many clubs and societies (see Scottish Enlightenment). Though there were several that treated the arts, sciences and medicine, the most prestigious was the Society for the Improvement of Medical Knowledge, commonly referred to as the Medical Society of Edinburgh, co-founded by the mathematician Colin Maclaurin in 1731.

Maclaurin was unhappy with the specialist nature of the Medical Society, and in 1737 a new, broader society, the Edinburgh Society for Improving Arts and Sciences and particularly Natural Knowledge was split from the specialist medical organisation, which then went on to become the Royal Medical Society.

The cumbersome name was changed the following year to the Edinburgh Philosophical Society. With the help of University of Edinburgh professors like Joseph Black, William Cullen and John Walker, this society transformed itself into the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1783 and in 1788 it issued the first volume of its new journal Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

As the end of the century drew near, the younger members such as Sir James Hall embraced Lavoisier's new nomenclature and the members split over the practical and theoretical objectives of the society. This resulted in the founding of the Wernerian Society (1808–58), a parallel organisation that focused more upon natural history and scientific research that could be used to improve Scotland's weak agricultural and industrial base. Under the leadership of Prof. Robert Jameson, the Wernerians first founded Memoirs of the Wernerian Natural History Society (1808–21) and then the Edinburgh Philosophical Journal (1822), thereby diverting the output of the Royal Society's Transactions. Thus, for the first four decades of the 19th century, the RSE's members published brilliant articles in two different journals. By the 1850s, the society once again unified its membership under one journal.