R. G. Collingwood

R. G. Collingwood (1889-1943) was an eminent British philosopher and archaeologist.

Robin George Collingwood was born in Cartmel Fell, Lancashire on 22 February 1889. He was a lecturer and professor at the University of Oxford between 1912 and 1941. He was of the world's leading authorities on the archaeology and history of Roman Britain.

As a philosopher of history he thought that there was a profound connection between history and philosophy, that both seek to uncover basic pre-suppositions of thought. His most important work in the philosophy of history was The Idea of History (1946). Here he argued that causal explanations form a basic part of the historian's task of describing the past and that philosophy should provide the justification of historical method.

He died on 9 January 1943.

Collingwood's entry in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2010/entries/collingwood