The Main Assumptions of Robin George Collingwood’s Metaphysics and Philosophy of History

Abstract

This article is an introduction to the translation of the Robin George Collingwood’s essay The Philosophy of History.

It contains a brief biographic note of the British philosopher; it presents the evolution of his philosophical views, the fundamental inspirations, a main research interests and a main spheres of influence of his thoughts. The article reconstructs the basic thinker’s views in metaphysics and philosophy of history: the conception of philosophy of mind, the theory of concepts and judgments, the conception of truth, the logic of question and answer, the conception of metaphysics as a science which analyses the absolute presuppositions, and clarifies the most important notions of his philosophy of history: the idea of eternal past, the conception of historical evidence and historical imagination, the idea of re-enactment.

The conclusion of the article is the statement that the real subject matter of history are historical figures’ ideas and objectives, which have to be understood if we want to get to know an historical event. There is a list of the most relevant R.G. Collingwood’s works at the end of the article.