Product Description

Published 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accompanied by further, shorter writings by Collingwood on historical knowledge and inquiry, selected from previously unpublished manuscripts held at the Bodleian Library, Oxford.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 Collingwood left The Principles of History unfinished at his death, and what significance should be attached to the fact that it contains no reference to the idea of historical understanding as re-enactment. This volume will be a landmark publication not just in Collingwood studies but in philosophy of history generally.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3645012 in Books
• Published on: 1999-03-18
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 384 pages

About the Author
R. G. Collingwood was Waynflete Professor of Metaphysical Philosophy in the University of Oxford from 1935 to 1941.

W. H. Dray is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the University of Ottawa; he has held visiting apptoinments at Toronto, Harvard, Stanford, and Duke Universities, among others.

W. J. van der Dussen is Professor of Humanities at the Open University of the Netherlands.