Description
Book SynopsisPublished here for the first time is much of a final and long-anticipated work on philosophy of history by the great Oxford philosopher and historian R. G. Collingwood (1889-1943). The original text of this uncompleted work has only recently been discovered. It is accompanied by further, shorter writings by Collingwood on historical knowledge and inquiry, selected from previously unpublished manuscripts held at the Bodleian Library, Oxford. All these writings, besides containing entirely new ideas, discuss further many of the issues which Collingwood famously raised in The Idea of History and in his Autobiography. The volume includes also two conclusions written by Collingwood for lectures which were eventually revised and published as The Idea of Nature, but which have relevance also to his philosophy of history. A lengthy editorial introduction sets these writings in their context, and discusses philosophical questions to which they give rise. The editors also consider why Collingwo
Trade Reviewlong and quite masterly Introduction * Michael Bentley, EHR Vol. 116 *
an important venture * Michael Bentley, EHR Vol. 116 *
The cumulative effect of this labour of love, indeed, is to confound Knox's prejudice that the later years of Collingwood's writing merit suppression and to round off the project of bringing the entire gamut of Collingwood's work out of the archives and into the public domain. The result will surely be a continuing reappraisal of the only British philosopher of history whose work is still read by historians. * Michael Bentley, EHR *
an important venture * Michael Bentley, EHR *
Table of ContentsEDITORS' INTRODUCTION; PART I: THE PRINCIPLES OF HISTORY: INTRODUCTION TO BOOK I; 1. EVIDENCE; 2. ACTION; 3. NATURE AND ACTION; 4. THE PAST; HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY; PART II: ESSAYS AND NOTES ON PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY 1933-1939: NOTES TOWARDS A METAPHYSIC; HISTORY AS THE UNDERSTANDING OF THE PRESENT; INAUGURAL: ROUGH NOTES; REALITY AS HISTORY; CAN HISTORIANS BE IMPARTIAL? NOTES ON THE HISTORY OF HISTORIOGRAPHY AND PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY; NOTES ON HISTORIOGRAPHY; CONCLUSIONS TO LECTURES ON NATURE AND MIND; BIBLIOGRAPHY; INDEX.
