Formation | 1819 |
---|---|
Type | Scientific Society |
Registration no. | 213811 [1] |
Legal status | Royal Charter, granted by King William IV in 1832 |
Focus | for the purpose of promoting scientific inquiry |
Headquarters | 17 Mill Lane, Cambridge, CB2 1RX United Kingdom |
Membership | Honorary Members and Fellows |
President | Professor Lindsay Greer |
Main organ | The Council |
Website | www |
Remarks | keep alive the spirit of inquiry |
The Cambridge Philosophical Society (CPS) is a scientific society at the University of Cambridge. It was founded in 1819. The name derives from the medieval use of the word philosophy to denote any research undertaken outside the fields of law, theology and medicine. The society was granted a royal charter by King William IV in 1832. The society is governed by an elected council of senior academics, which is chaired by the Society's President, according to a set of statutes.
The society has published several scientific journals, including Biological Reviews (established 1926) and Mathematical Proceedings of the Cambridge Philosophical Society (formerly entitled Proceedings of the Cambridge Philosophical Society, published since 1843). Transactions of the Cambridge Philosophical Society was published between 1821–1928, but was then discontinued.
The society was founded in 1819 by John Stevens Henslow, Adam Sedgwick and Edward Clarke, is Cambridge's oldest scientific society. [2]
Its prime purpose is to "keep alive the spirit of inquiry". For over 200 years, this spirit has been kept alive by its members and its activities. The society is independent of the University of Cambridge, although its offices are located within the University of Cambridge estate in central Cambridge. The Society has provided an open forum and played a key role in raising the profile of the sciences to the public.
The society is a registered charity: 213811 [3] and has 11 Trustees. It is assisted by a number of full-time and part-time paid staff. Membership of the Society is currently over 2,000.
Members of the Society are called Fellows and are entitled to use the ‘FCPS’ post-nominals. Fellows are usually academics or graduate students involved in mathematical or scientific research within the University. A Fellow must be recommended in writing by both a Fellow of the Society who has been a member for at least three years and a person of appropriate standing, who knows the candidate in a professional capacity. Approved candidates are elected at open meetings of the Society following proposal at Council Meetings. [4]
The equivalent organisation for philosophers is the Cambridge Moral Sciences Club.
The society publishes one of the oldest mathematical journals in history: "Mathematical Proceedings" first published in 1843 and now published for Cambridge Philosophical Society by Cambridge University Press. [5] [6] It has also published "Biological Reviews" [7] since 1926.
The society organizes lectures given by prominent scientists and mathematicians. [8] The lectures are free and open to all who are interested to attend.
The Society has had numerous Fellows and Honorary Fellows who have been awarded the Nobel Prize. The first two recipients were Honorary Fellows Hendrik A Lorentz and Pieter Zeeman in 1902 for the Nobel Prize in Physics. The Society's first women winner was Honorary Fellow Marie Curie in 1903 for the Nobel Prize in Physics. Marie Curie was the first person to win or share two Nobel Prizes, being awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1911.
In 1964, Dorothy Hodgkin became not only the first female Fellow of the Society to win a Nobel Prize (Chemistry) but also the first female member of the University of Cambridge to do so.
Currently 49 Nobel Prize winners are listed amongst its Fellows and Honorary Fellows of the Cambridge Philosophical Society. [9]
To commemorate the Society’s bicentenary, a blue plaque to the Society was erected in March 2019 on 2 All Saints Passage (the house built by the Society in 1833 to house its meeting room, library and collections). The plaque was unveiled by Sir Martin Rees at opening of the Society’s exhibition at Cambridge University Library. [10]
The society has built up an exceptional historical scientific record dating back to 1819. While not on public display, the archives can be viewed by prior arrangement with the Cambridge Philosophical Society. [11]
The Society archives include the following:
Charles Darwin, a student at Christ's College, University of Cambridge, came to know John Stevens Henslow as his tutor and through his attendance at Henslow's scientific talks at the University. Darwin had been recommended by Henslow to take his place aboard the survey ship HMS Beagle on a two-year voyage to survey South America, which eventually lasted five years and circumnavigated the globe.
During the voyage, Darwin corresponded by letter with Henslow after reaching South America, and collected specimens with him in mind, particularly plants. Extracts from ten of Darwin's letters from South America to Henslow were first read out at a meeting of the Cambridge Philosophical Society on 16 November 1835, around the time that the ship reached Tahiti. Two days later, Adam Sedgwick read geological notes based on the letters to the Geological Society of London. The Council of the Cambridge Philosophical Society had the extracts printed in a pamphlet dated 1 December 1835, for private distribution among the Members of the Society,.
The pamphlet has been described as the first writing of Charles Darwin ever to be published, but earlier, while still at Cambridge University, he had his notes on insects published in a book by James Francis Stephens. [12] [13]
The readings were held and the pamphlet Extracts from Letters to Henslow was printed without Darwin's knowledge. Upon learning of this pamphlet, Darwin was "a good deal horrified" at Henslow making public "what had been written without care or accuracy". The publicity helped Darwin's career, and at the end of his life acknowledged their friendship as the most important "circumstance" of his life.
The original pamphlet is now rare. According to American Book Prices Current only four copies have appeared at auction since 1975. On 19 June 2014 Christies auctioned an original copy in New York (Sale 2861) and realised $221,000. [14]
In 1960 it was reprinted privately to mark the 100th anniversary of the publication of the " Origin of Species " on 26 November 1859 and issued to Members and Associates of the Society.
John William Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh, was a British mathematician and physicist who made extensive contributions to science. He spent all of his academic career at the University of Cambridge. Among many honours, he received the 1904 Nobel Prize in Physics "for his investigations of the densities of the most important gases and for his discovery of argon in connection with these studies." He served as president of the Royal Society from 1905 to 1908 and as chancellor of the University of Cambridge from 1908 to 1919.
Sir Roger Penrose, is a British mathematician, mathematical physicist, philosopher of science and Nobel Laureate in Physics. He is Emeritus Rouse Ball Professor of Mathematics in the University of Oxford, an emeritus fellow of Wadham College, Oxford, and an honorary fellow of St John's College, Cambridge, and University College London.
Sir William Ramsay was a Scottish chemist who discovered the noble gases and received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1904 "in recognition of his services in the discovery of the inert gaseous elements in air" along with his collaborator, John William Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh, who received the Nobel Prize in Physics that same year for their discovery of argon. After the two men identified argon, Ramsay investigated other atmospheric gases. His work in isolating argon, helium, neon, krypton, and xenon led to the development of a new section of the periodic table.
Sir Joseph John Thomson was a British physicist and Nobel Laureate in Physics, credited with the discovery of the electron, the first subatomic particle to be found.
William Whewell was an English polymath, scientist, Anglican priest, philosopher, theologian, and historian of science. He was Master at Trinity College, Cambridge. In his time as a student there, he achieved distinction in both poetry and mathematics.
William Barton Rogers was an American geologist, physicist, and educator at the College of William & Mary from 1828 to 1835 and at the University of Virginia from 1835 to 1853. In 1861, Rogers founded the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The university opened in 1865 after the American Civil War. Because of his affiliation with Virginia, Mount Rogers, the highest peak in the state, is named after him.
The Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) is a learned society and charity that encourages and promotes the study of astronomy, solar-system science, geophysics and closely related branches of science. Its headquarters are in Burlington House, on Piccadilly in London. The society has over 4,000 members, known as fellows, most of whom are professional researchers or postgraduate students. Around a quarter of Fellows live outside the UK.
The Zoological Society of London (ZSL) is a charity devoted to the worldwide conservation of animals and their habitats. It was founded in 1826. Since 1828, it has maintained London Zoo, and since 1931 Whipsnade Zoo.
The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, recognising excellence in science, supporting outstanding science, providing scientific advice for policy, education and public engagement and fostering international and global co-operation. Founded on 28 November 1660, it was granted a royal charter by King Charles II as The Royal Society and is the oldest continuously existing scientific academy in the world.
Darwin College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded on 28 July 1964, Darwin was Cambridge University's first graduate-only college, and also the first to admit both men and women. The college is named after one of the university's most famous families and alumni, that of Charles Darwin. The Darwin family previously owned some of the land, Newnham Grange, on which the college now stands.
John Stevens Henslow was an English Anglican priest, botanist and geologist. He is best remembered as friend and mentor to his pupil Charles Darwin.
Sir George Howard Darwin, was an English barrister and astronomer, the second son and fifth child of Charles Darwin and Emma Darwin.
Sir Francis Darwin was a British botanist. He was the third son of the naturalist and scientist Charles Darwin.
Charles Darwin's education gave him a foundation in the doctrine of Creation prevalent throughout the Western world at the time, as well as knowledge of medicine and theology. More significantly, it led to his interest in natural history, which culminated in his taking part in the second voyage of HMS Beagle and the eventual inception of his theory of natural selection. Although Darwin changed his field of interest several times in these formative years, many of his later discoveries and beliefs were foreshadowed by the influences he had as a youth.
Leonard Jenyns was an English clergyman, author and naturalist. He was forced to take on the name Leonard Blomefield to receive an inheritance. He is chiefly remembered for his detailed phenology observations of the times of year at which events in natural history occurred.
Adam Sedgwick was a British geologist and Anglican priest, one of the founders of modern geology. He proposed the Cambrian and Devonian period of the geological timescale. Based on work which he did on Welsh rock strata, he proposed the Cambrian period in 1835, in a joint publication in which Roderick Murchison also proposed the Silurian period. Later in 1840, to resolve what later became known as the Great Devonian Controversy about rocks near the boundary between the Silurian and Carboniferous periods, he and Murchison proposed the Devonian period.
Hugh Christopher Longuet-Higgins was a British scholar and teacher. He was the Professor of Theoretical Chemistry at the University of Cambridge for 13 years until 1967 when he moved to the University of Edinburgh to work in the developing field of cognitive science. He made many significant contributions to our understanding of molecular science. He was also a gifted amateur musician, both as performer and composer, and was keen to advance the scientific understanding of this art. He was the founding editor of the journal Molecular Physics.
This is a list of the writings of Charles Darwin.
The Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution is an educational charity based in Bath, England. It was founded in 1824 and provides a museum, an independent library, exhibition space, meeting rooms and a programme of public lectures, discussion groups and exhibitions related to science, the arts and current affairs.
Extracts from Letters to Henslow, taken from ten letters Charles Darwin wrote to John Stevens Henslow from South America during the second survey expedition of HMS Beagle, were read to the Cambridge Philosophical Society on 16 November 1835 by Henslow and Adam Sedgwick, followed on 18 November by geological notes from the letters which Sedgwick read to the Geological Society of London. On 1 December 1835 they were printed as a pamphlet for private distribution.