Faculty of Arts

A distinct Faculty of Arts was established in 1708, as the Regenting system was phased out. The original Chairs within it were:

• Mathematics
• Humanity
• Greek
• Logic and Metaphysics
• Moral Philosophy
• Natural Philosophy.

In the course of the 18th century the following Chairs were added:

• Universal Civil History and Antiquities (1719)
• Rhetoric and Belles Lettres (1762)
• Practical Astronomy (1786)
• Agriculture (1790)

The 19th century saw the institution of the following Chairs:

• Music (1839)
• Technology (1855; abolished 1859)
• Sanskrit (1862)
• Engineering (1868)
• Political Economy (1871)
• Geology (1871)
• Education (1876)
• Fine Art (1880)
• Celtic (1882)
• History (1893)

When the Faculty of Science was created in 1893, the Chairs of Astronomy (previously Practical Astronomy), Engineering, and Geology were transferred to it.

Following restructuring in 2002, the university's nine Faculties were reconstituted as three Colleges, while Departments were reorganised and replaced by Schools. The Departments previously contained within the Faculty of Arts were incorporated in four Schools of the newly founded College of Humanities and Social Science:

• Arts, Culture and Environment (now replaced by the enlarged Edinburgh College of Art)
• History, Classics and Archaeology
• Literatures, Languages and Cultures
• Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences