Robin George Collingwood (; 22 February 1889 – 9 January 1943) was an
English philosopher
A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...
,
historian and
archaeologist
Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...
. He is best known for his philosophical works, including ''The Principles of Art'' (1938) and the posthumously published ''The Idea of History'' (1946).
Biography
Collingwood was born 22 February 1889 in
Cartmel,
Grange-over-Sands, then in
Lancashire (now
Cumbria), the son of the artist and archaeologist
W.G. Collingwood
William Gershom Collingwood (; 6 August 1854, in Liverpool – 1 October 1932) was an English author, artist, antiquary and professor of Fine Arts at University College, Reading.Obituary in ''The Times'', ''Mr W.G. Collingwood'', ''Artist, Autho ...
, who acted as
John Ruskin's private secretary in the final years of Ruskin's life. Collingwood's mother was also an artist and a talented pianist. He was educated at
Rugby School and
University College, Oxford, where he gained a First in Classical Moderations (Greek and Latin) in 1910 and a congratulatory First in
Greats (Ancient History and Philosophy) in 1912. Prior to graduation he was elected a fellow of
Pembroke College, Oxford
Pembroke College, a constituent college of the University of Oxford, is located at Pembroke Square, Oxford. The college was founded in 1624 by King James I of England, using in part the endowment of merchant Thomas Tesdale, and was named after ...
.
Collingwood was a fellow of Pembroke College, Oxford, for some 15 years until becoming the
Waynflete Professor of Metaphysical Philosophy at
Magdalen College, Oxford
Magdalen College (, ) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. It was founded in 1458 by William of Waynflete. Today, it is the fourth wealthiest college, with a financial endowment of £332.1 million as of 2019 and one of the s ...
. He was taught by the historian and archaeologist
F. J. Haverfield, at the time
Camden Professor of Ancient History. Important influences on Collingwood were the Italian Idealists
Benedetto Croce
Benedetto Croce (; 25 February 1866 – 20 November 1952)
was an Italian idealist philosopher, historian, and politician, who wrote on numerous topics, including philosophy, history, historiography and aesthetics. In most regards, Croce was a lib ...
,
Giovanni Gentile and
Guido de Ruggiero, the last of whom was also a close friend. Other important influences were
Hegel
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (; ; 27 August 1770 – 14 November 1831) was a German philosopher. He is one of the most important figures in German idealism and one of the founding figures of modern Western philosophy. His influence extends a ...
,
Kant,
Giambattista Vico,
F. H. Bradley and
J. A. Smith.
After several years of increasingly debilitating strokes Collingwood died at
Coniston, Lancashire, on 9 January 1943. He was a practising
Anglican
Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...
throughout his life.
Philosopher
Philosophy of history
Collingwood is widely noted for ''The Idea of History'' (1946), which was collated from various sources soon after his death by a student,
T. M. Knox. It came to be a major inspiration for philosophy of history in the English-speaking world and is extensively cited, leading to an ironic remark by commentator
Louis Mink
Louis O. Mink Jr. (September 3, 1921 – January 19, 1983) was a Philosophy of history, philosopher of history whose works challenged early philosopher of history R. G. Collingwood and were part of a postmodern dialogue on history and historical ...
that Collingwood is coming to be "the best known neglected thinker of our time".
Collingwood categorized history as a science, defining a science as "any organized body of knowledge." However, he distinguished history from natural sciences because the concerns of these two branches are different: natural sciences are concerned with the physical world while history, in its most common usage, is concerned with social sciences and human affairs. Collingwood pointed out a fundamental difference between knowing things in the present (or in the natural sciences) and knowing history. To come to know things in the present or about things in the natural sciences, "real" things can be observed, as they are in existence or that have substance right now.
Since the internal thought processes of historical persons cannot be perceived with the physical senses and past historical events cannot be directly observed, history must be methodologically different from natural sciences. History, being a study of the human mind, is interested in the thoughts and motivations of the actors in history, this insight being encapsulated in his epigram “All history is the history of thought.” Therefore, Collingwood suggested that a historian must "reconstruct" history by using "historical imagination" to "re-enact" the thought processes of historical persons based on information and evidence from historical sources. Re-enactment of thought refers to the idea that the historian can access not only a thought process similar to that of the historical actor, but the actual thought process itself. Consider Collingwood's words regarding the study of Plato:
In its immediacy, as an actual experience of his own, Plato's argument must undoubtedly have grown up out of a discussion of some sort, though I do not know what it was, and been closely connected with such a discussion. Yet if I not only read his argument but understand it, follow it in my own mind by re-arguing it with and for myself, the process of argument which I go through is not a process resembling Plato's, it actually is Plato's, so far as I understand him rightly.
In Collingwood's understanding, a thought is a single entity accessible to the public and therefore, regardless of how many people have the same thought, it is still a singular thought. "Thoughts, in other words, are to be distinguished on the basis of purely qualitative criteria, and if there are two people entertaining the (qualitatively) same thought, there is (numerically) only one thought since there is only one propositional content." Therefore, if historians follow the correct line of inquiry in response to a historical source and reason correctly, they can arrive at the same thought the author of their source had and, in so doing, "re-enact" that thought.
Collingwood rejected what he deemed "scissors-and-paste history" in which the historian rejects a statement recorded by their subject either because it contradicts another historical statement or because it contradicts the historian's own understanding of the world. As he states in ''Principles of History,'' sometimes a historian will encounter "a story which he simply cannot believe, a story characteristic, perhaps, of the superstitions or prejudices of the author's time or the circle in which he lived, but not credible to a more enlightened age, and therefore to be omitted." This, Collingwood argues, is an unacceptable way to do history. Sources which make claims that do not align with current understandings of the world were still created by rational humans who had reason for creating them. Therefore, these sources are valuable and ought to be investigated further in order to get at the historical context in which they were created and for what reason.
Philosophy of art
''The Principles of Art'' (1938) comprises Collingwood's most developed treatment of
aesthetic
Aesthetics, or esthetics, is a branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of beauty and taste, as well as the philosophy of art (its own area of philosophy that comes out of aesthetics). It examines aesthetic values, often expressed th ...
questions. Collingwood held (following
Benedetto Croce
Benedetto Croce (; 25 February 1866 – 20 November 1952)
was an Italian idealist philosopher, historian, and politician, who wrote on numerous topics, including philosophy, history, historiography and aesthetics. In most regards, Croce was a lib ...
) that works of art are essentially expressions of emotion. For Collingwood, an important social role for artists is to clarify and articulate emotions from their community.
Collingwood developed a position later known as
aesthetic expressivism (not to be confused with various other views typically called
expressivism), a thesis first developed by Croce.
[Berys Gaut and Dominic McIver Lopes, ''The Routledge Companion to Aesthetics'', Routledge, 2002, ch. 11: "Expressivism: Croce and Collingwood."]
Political philosophy
In politics Collingwood defended the ideals of what he called liberalism "in its Continental sense":
The essence of this conception is ... the idea of a community as governing itself by fostering the free expression of all political opinions that take shape within it, and finding some means of reducing this multiplicity of opinions to a unity.
In his ''Autobiography'', Collingwood confessed that his politics had always been "democratic" and "liberal", and shared Guido de Ruggiero's opinion that socialism had rendered a great service to liberalism by pointing out the shortcomings of laissez-faire economics.
Archaeologist
Collingwood was not just a philosopher of history but also a practising historian and archaeologist. He was, during his time, a leading authority on
Roman Britain: he spent his term time at Oxford teaching philosophy but devoted his long vacations to archaeology.
He began work along
Hadrian's Wall
Hadrian's Wall ( la, Vallum Aelium), also known as the Roman Wall, Picts' Wall, or ''Vallum Hadriani'' in Latin, is a former defensive fortification of the Roman province of Britannia, begun in AD 122 in the reign of the Emperor Hadrian. R ...
. The family home was at Coniston in the Lake District and his father was a leading figure in the Cumberland and Westmorland Archaeological Society. Collingwood was drawn in on a number of excavations and put forward the theory that Hadrian's Wall was not so much a fighting platform but an elevated sentry walk. He also put forward the suggestion that Hadrian's defensive system also included a number of forts along the Cumberland coast.
He was very active in the 1930 Wall Pilgrimage for which he prepared the ninth edition of
Bruce's Handbook.
His final and most controversial excavation in Cumbria was that of a circular ring ditch near Penrith known as
King Arthur's Round Table
King Arthur's Round Table is a Neolithic henge in the village of Eamont Bridge in the English county of Cumbria, around south east of Penrith. It is 400 metres from Mayburgh Henge. The site is free to visitors and is under the control of ...
in 1937. It appeared to be a Neolithic henge monument, and Collingwood's excavations, failing to find conclusive evidence of Neolithic activity, nevertheless found the base of two stone pillars, a possible cremation trench and some post holes. Sadly, his subsequent ill health prevented him undertaking a second season so the work was handed over to the German prehistorian
Gerhard Bersu
Gerhard Bersu (26 September 1889 – 19 November 1964) was a German archaeologist who excavated widely across Europe. He was forced into exile from Germany in 1937 due to anti-Semitic laws in pre-war Nazi Germany. He was interned on the Isle ...
, who queried some of Collingwood's findings. However, recently, Grace Simpson, the daughter of the excavator F. G. Simpson, has queried Bersu's work and largely rehabilitated Collingwood as an excavator.
He also began what was to be the major work of his archaeological career, preparing a corpus of the ''
Roman Inscriptions of Britain'', which involved travelling all over Britain to see the inscriptions and draw them; he eventually prepared drawings of nearly 900 inscriptions. It was finally published in 1965 by his student R. P. Wright.
He also published two major archaeological works. The first was ''The Archaeology of Roman Britain'', a handbook in sixteen chapters covering first the archaeological sites (fortresses, towns and temples and portable antiquities) inscriptions, coins, pottery and brooches.
Mortimer Wheeler in a review, remarked that "it seemed at first a trifle off beat that he should immerse himself in so much museum-like detail ... but I felt sure that this was incidental to his primary mission to organise his own thinking".
However, his most important work was his contribution to the first volume of the Oxford History of England, ''Roman Britain and the English Settlements'', of which he wrote the major part,
Nowell Myres
John Nowell Linton Myres (27 December 1902 – 25 September 1989) was a British archaeologist and Bodley's Librarian at the Bodleian Library in Oxford from 1948 until his resignation in 1965; and librarian of Christ Church before his Bodleian a ...
adding the second smaller part on English settlements. The book was in many ways revolutionary for it set out to write the story of Roman Britain from an archaeological rather than a historical viewpoint, putting into practice his own belief in 'Question and Answer' archaeology.
The result was alluring and influential. However, as
Ian Richmond wrote, 'The general reader may discover too late that it has one major defect. It does not sufficiently distinguish between objective and subjective and combines both in a subtle and apparently objective presentation'.
The most notorious passage is that on Romano-British art: "the impression that constantly haunts the archaeologist, like a bad smell, is that of an ugliness that plagues the place like a London fog".
Collingwood’s most important contribution to British archaeology was his insistence on Question and Answer archaeology: excavations should not take place unless there is a question to be answered. It is a philosophy which, as
Anthony Birley
Anthony Richard Birley (8 October 1937 – 19 December 2020) was a British ancient historian, archaeologist and academic. He was the son of Margaret Isabel (Goodlet) and historian and archaeologist Eric Birley.
Early life and education
Anthony ...
points out, has been incorporated by
English Heritage into the conditions for Scheduled Monuments Consent. Still, it has always been surprising that the proponents of the "new" archaeology in the 1960s and the 70s have entirely ignored the work of Collingwood, the one major archaeologist who was also a major professional philosopher. He has been described as an early proponent of
archaeological theory
Archaeological theory refers to the various intellectual frameworks through which archaeologists interpret archaeological data. Archaeological theory functions as the application of philosophy of science to archaeology, and is occasionally referre ...
.
Author
Outside archaeology and philosophy, he also published the travel book ''The First Mate's Log of a Voyage to Greece'' (1940), an account of a yachting voyage in the Mediterranean, in the company of several of his students.
Arthur Ransome
Arthur Michell Ransome (18 January 1884 – 3 June 1967) was an English author and journalist. He is best known for writing and illustrating the ''Swallows and Amazons'' series of children's books about the school-holiday adventures of childre ...
was a family friend, and learned to sail in their boat, subsequently teaching his sibling's children to sail. Ransome loosely based
the Swallows
The Swallows were an American R&B group. They are best known for their 1951 recording of "Will You Be Mine", which appeared in the US ''Billboard'' R&B chart.
History
Founded in Baltimore, Maryland, United States, in 1946 as "The Oakaleers", ...
in ''
Swallows and Amazons series'' on his sibling's children.
Works
Main works published in his lifetime
*''Religion and Philosophy'' (1916)
*''Roman Britain'' (1923; 2nd ed., 1932)
*''Speculum Mentis; or The Map of Knowledge'' (1924)
*''Outlines of a Philosophy of Art'' (1925)
*''The Archaeology of Roman Britain'' (1930)
*''An Essay on Philosophical Method'' (1933, rev. ed. 2005).
*''Roman Britain and the English Settlements'' (with
J. N. L. Myres
John Nowell Linton Myres (27 December 1902 – 25 September 1989) was a British archaeologist and Bodley's Librarian at the Bodleian Library in Oxford from 1948 until his resignation in 1965; and librarian of Christ Church before his Bodleian app ...
, 1936, 2nd ed. 1937)
*''The Principles of Art'' (1938)
*''An Autobiography'' (1939)
*''The First Mate's Log'' (1940)
*''An Essay on Metaphysics'' (1940, revised edition 1998).
*''The New Leviathan'' (1942, rev. ed. 1992)
Main articles published in his lifetime
*'A Philosophy of Progress', ''The Realist'', 1:1, April 1929, 64-77
Published posthumously
*''The Idea of Nature'' (1945)
*''The Idea of History'' (1946, revised edition 1993).
*''Essays in the Philosophy of Art'' (1964)
*''Essays in the Philosophy of History'' (1965)
*''Essays in Political Philosophy'' (with David Boucher) (1989)
*''The Principles of History and Other Writings in Philosophy of History'' (ed. William H. Dray and W. J. van der Dussen) (2001)
*''The Philosophy of Enchantment: Studies in Folktale, Cultural Criticism, and Anthropology'' (2005)
All 'revised' editions comprise the original text plus a new introduction and extensive additional material.
Notes
Sources
*
William M. Johnston, ''The Formative Years of R. G. Collingwood'' (Harvard University Archives, 1965)
* Jan van der Dussen: ''History as a Science: The Philosophy of R. G. Collingwood.'' Springer, 2012.
rint Book*David Boucher. ''The Social and Political Thought of R. G. Collingwood''. Cambridge University Press. 1989. 300pp.
*
Alan Donagan
Alan Harry Donagan (10 February 1925 – 29 May 1991) was an Australian/American philosopher, distinguished for his theories on the philosophy of history and the nature of morality.
He attended the University of Melbourne and was Professor ...
. ''The Later Philosophy of R. G. Collingwood''. University of Chicago Press. 1986.
*
William H. Dray
William Herbert Dray (23 June 1921, in Montreal – 6 August 2009, in Toronto) was a Canadian philosopher of history. He was Professor Emeritus at the University of Ottawa.
He is known for his version of anti- positivist ''Verstehen'' in histo ...
. ''History as Re-enactment: R. G. Collingwood's Idea of History''. Oxford University Press. 1995. 347pp.
Further reading
* Moran, Seán Farrell, "R.G. Collingwood," ''Encyclopedia of Historians and Historical Writing'', Vol. I.
* https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/collingwood/
External links
*
*
*
''Voice in the wilderness: RG Collingwood''2009 radio discussion with
Marnie Hughes-Warrington on ''
The Philosopher's Zone
''The Philosopher's Zone'' is a weekly ABC Radio National radio discussion series exploring philosophical
Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, know ...
''
"How the untimely death of RG Collingwood changed the course of philosophy forever"2019 article by
Ray Monk for ''
Prospect
Prospect may refer to:
General
* Prospect (marketing), a marketing term describing a potential customer
* Prospect (sports), any player whose rights are owned by a professional team, but who has yet to play a game for the team
* Prospect (mining ...
''
*Leach, S., 2009.
"An Appreciation of R. G. Collingwood as an Archaeologist". ''
Bulletin of the History of Archaeology
The ''Bulletin of the History of Archaeology'' is an open access, peer-reviewed academic journal publishing research, reviews, and short communications on the history of archaeology. It was established in May 1991 by Douglas Givens. It was edite ...
'', 19(1), pp. 14–20.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Collingwood, Robin George
1889 births
1943 deaths
20th-century archaeologists
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