• Some notes on the history...
• Chair incumbents

Some notes on the history of the Philosophy Department

The University of Edinburgh was originally the "College of Edinburgh" or "The Town's College" founded in 1583 by the Town Council of Edinburgh. Professorships were not generally instituted until 1708. Between 1583 and that date the Regent system prevailed. The Regents of Philosophy taught in rotation the four classes in the curriculum of Arts, the "Bajans", the "Semi-Bajans" the "Bachelors" and the "Magistrands", as the students of the first, second, third, and fourth year were respectively styled. Each Regent therefore taught every subject in the curriculum--the Regent of Humanity being subordinate to the Regent of Philosophy, and being employed as a tutor in Classics for unmatriculated students.

In 1708 the system was changed and separate Professors for Latin, Greek, Logic and Metaphysics, Moral Philosophy and Natural Philosophy were substituted for the Regents. A Professorship in Mathematics had previously existed. By the Universities Act of 1858, the patronage of the Chairs, previously in the gift of the Town Council, was transferred to seven Curators of Patronage. (This passage is excerpted from old copies of the Edinburgh University Calendar.)

Chair incumbents

Chair of Moral Philosophy

Dates	Name
1708	William Law
1729	William Scott
1734-1745	John Pringle
1745-1754	William Cleghorn (David Hume unsuccessful)
1754-1764	James Balfour
1764-1785	Adam Ferguson
1785-1820	Dugald Stewart
(1810-1820	Thomas Brown (conjoint professor)
1820-1851	John Wilson (wrote journalism as 'Christopher North')
1853-	P. C. M'Dougall
1868	Henry Calderwood
1898	James Seth
1924-1941	Alfred Edward Taylor (performed duties till 1944)
1944-1957	John Macmurray
1959	Winston Herbert Frederick Barnes
1964-1973	Harry Burrows Acton
1975-1996	Ronald Hepburn
1999-2004	Rae Langton

Chair of Logic and Metaphysics

Dates	Name
1708	Colin Drummond
1730	John Stevenson
1774	John Bruce
1786	James Finlayson
1808	David Ritchie
1836-1856	William Hamilton
1856	Alexander Campbell Fraser
1891-1919	Andrew Seth (from 1898 known as 'Andrew Seth Pringle-Pattison')
1919-1945	Norman Kemp Smith
1945-1960	Arthur David Ritchie
1960-1976	William Henry Walsh
1979-1989	Timothy Sprigge
1995-2000	Timothy Williamson
2000-2003	Huw Price
2004-	Andy Clark

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