Collingwood, R G

Collingwood, R(obin) G(eorge)

(born Feb. 22, 1889, Cartmel Fell, Lancashire, Eng.—died Jan. 9, 1943, Coniston, Lancashire) British historian and philosopher. A lecturer, and later professor, at the University of Oxford (1912–41), he was a leading authority on the archaeology and history of Roman Britain. He believed that “the chief business of 20th-century philosophy is to reckon with 20th-century history” and that philosophy and history are both a matter of discovering fundamental presuppositions. In his most influential work, The Idea of History (1946), he maintained that historical thinking requires explanation as part of any description and that it is the philosopher's task to articulate and justify historical methodology. He is viewed as a seminal thinker in the philosophy of history.