The Formative Years of R. G. Collingwood

ISBN-13: 9789401186780 / Angielski / Miękka / 1967 / 167 str.

William M. Johnston

Opis

Collingwood and Hegel R. G. Collingwood was a lonely thinker. Begrudgingly admired by some and bludgeoned by others, he failed to train a single disciple, just as he failed to communicate to the reading public his vision of the unity of experience. This failure stands in stark contrast to the success of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, who won many disciples to a very similar point-of-view and whose influence on subsequent thought, having been rediscovered since 1920, has not yet been adequately explored. Collingwood and Hegel share three fundamental similarities: both men held overwhelming admiration of the Greeks, both possessed uniquely broad knowledge of academic controversies of their day, and both were inalterably convinced that human experience consti tutes a single whole. If experts find Collingwood's vision of wholeness less satisfactory than Hegel's, much of the fault lies in the atmosphere in which Col lingwood labored. Oxford in the 1920'S and 1930's, sceptical and specialized, was not the enthusiastic Heidelberg and Berlin of 1816 to 183I. What is important in Collingwood is not that he fell short of Hegel but that working under adverse conditions he came so elose. Indeed those unfamiliar with Hegel will find in Collingwood's early works, especially in Speculum M entis, a useful introduction to the great German."

Spis treści

One The Family Background and Formal Education of R. G. Collingwood.- I. Introduction: A Sketch of R. G. Collingwood’s Career and Major Interests.- 1. Family Background and Education at Home (1889–1902).- 2. Formal Education at Rugby and Oxford (1902–1912).- 3. Three Periods as a Writer in Philosophy (1912–1943).- 4. Major Interests and Hobbies.- II. John Ruskin as an Inspiration for W. G. Collingwood and R. G. Collingwood.- 1. Ruskin’s Early Life (1819–1845).- 2. Art, Religion, Science, and History as Pursuits of the Mature Ruskin (1845–1900).- 3. W. G. Collingwood as Mediator Between Ruskin and R. G. Collingwood.- III. The Literae Humaniores Program at Oxford and R. G. Collingwood’s Response to It.- 1. The Curriculum of the Litevae Humaniores Program and Some of Its Distinguished Graduates (1859–1925).- 2. R. G. Collingwood’s Response to the Literae Humaniores Program (1909–1943).- IV. R. G. Collingwood’s Research in the Archaeology of Roman Britain.- 1. His Pursuit of Roman Archaeology 1911–1939.- 2. Influence of His Research in Archaeology on His Work in Philosophy.- Two The Unfolding of Collingwood’s Approach to Philosophy 1913–1923.- V. Collingwood’s Religion and Philosophy (1916).- 1. Collingwood’s Polemic Against Empirical Psychology.- 2. The Conception of Philosophy in Religion and Philosophy.- 3. Collingwood’s Intended Audience for His Works.- VI. Two Pivotal Essays: “The Devil” (1916) and Ruskin’s Philosophy (1919/1922).- 1. A Radical Doctrine of Freedom of the Will in “The Devil”.- 2. Collingwood’s Portrait of Ruskin as a Synthetic Mind in Ruskin’s Philosophy.- 3. Similarities Between Collingwood and His Portrait of Ruskin.- VII. Benedetto Croce as a Foil to R. G. Collingwood.- 1. Croce and Collingwood: A Comparison.- 2. Croce versus Michael Oakeshott as a Foil to Collingwood.- 3. Croce’s Early Career (1866–1900).- 4. Croce’s Philosophy of Culture (1901–1915).- 5. Croce’s Introduction into England (1907–1920).- VII. The Influence of Croce, Gentile, and Vico on Collingwood During the Early 1920’s.- 1. Collingwood’s Critique of Croce in “Croce’s Philosophy of History” (1921).- 2. Collingwood’s Assessment of Gentile in “Can the New Idealism Dispense with Mysticism?” (1923).- 3. The Relative Influence of Croce, Gentile, Vico, and Ruskin on the Early Collingwood.- Three Speculum Mentis (1924): A Description of the five Forms of Experience.- IX. General Characteristics of Speculum Mentis.- 1. Collingwood’s Attitude Toward It and Aims in Undertaking It.- 2. The Five Forms of Experience and the Technique for Describing Them.- 3. Literary Allusions in Speculum Mentis.- X. Art and Religion as Elementary Forms of Experience.- 1. Characteristics of Art.- 2. Characteristics of Religion.- 3. Collingwood and Freud as Explorers of the Mind.- XI. Science as the Third Form of Experience.- 1. Characteristics of Science.- 2. Collingwood’s Lack of Experience in the Natural Sciences and Its Consequences.- XII. History and Philosophy as the Culminating Forms of Experience.- 1. Characteristics of History.- 2. Collingwood’s Difficulties in Characterizing Philosophy.- Four R. G. Collingwood’s Isolation in Twentieth Century Thought.- XIII. R. G. Collingwood’s Place in the History of Ideas (1900–1925).- 1. The Place of the Early Collingwood Among Thinkers of His Day.- 2. General Causes of Collingwood’s Intellectual Isolation.- XIV. Conclusion: R. G. Collingwood’s Intellectual Loneliness after 1924 and its Roots in His Ruskinian Education.- Appendices.

O autorze

William M. Johnston, geb. 1936; war Professor für Geschichte an der University of Massachusetts, seit 2001 lehrt er am College of Divinity in Melbourne.