Its purpose was development and progress of sciences in all areas of human knowledge.
It was financed by the Polish government as well as its own foundation and private donors.
Members of the Society were divided into active and adopted, most of them were professors of Lwów's colleges.
In 1927, the Society was directed by Oswald Balzer, and the deputy was Władysław Abraham.
Among members of the Society were such renowned names as Jan Baudouin de Courtenay, Aleksander Brückner, Stefan Banach, Henryk Arctowski, Leopold Caro, Benedykt Dybowski, Hugo Steinhaus and Rudolf Weigl.