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Robin George Collingwood
Born	February 22, 1889 Lancashire
Died	January 9, 1943 Coniston, Cumbria
Occupation	Philosopher and historian

Robin George Collingwood (February 22, 1889 – January 9, 1943) was a British philosopher and historian. He was born at Cartmel Fell in Lancashire the son of the academic W. G. Collingwood, and was educated at Rugby School and the University of Oxford.

Collingwood (though he disliked the label) was an idealist who became Waynflete Professor of Metaphysical Philosophy at Pembroke College, at the University of Oxford. He was the only pupil of F. J. Haverfield to survive World War I. Important influences were the Italian Idealists Croce, Gentile and de Ruggiero, the last of whom was also a close friend. Other important influences were Kant, Vico, F. H. Bradley, and J. A. Smith. His father W. G. Collingwood, who became professor of fine arts at Reading University, was a student of Ruskin and was also an important influence.

Collingwood is most famous for his book The Idea of History, a work collated from various sources soon after his death by his pupil, T. M. Knox. The book came to be a major inspiration for philosophy of history in the English-speaking world. It is extensively cited, leading one commentator to ironically remark that Collingwood is coming to be "the best known neglected thinker of our time".^[1]

Collingwood held history is "recollection" of the "thinking" of a historical personage. Collingwood considered whether two different people can have the same thought and not just the same content, concluding that "there is no tenable theory of personal identity" preventing such a doctrine.

In "The Principles of Art" Collingwood held (following Croce) that works of art are essentially expressions of emotion. He portrayed art as a necessary function of the human mind, and considered it collaborative activity. In politics Collingwood defended the ideals of nineteenth-century liberalism.

Collingwood was one of the leading historians and archaeologists of Roman Britain. At Oxford he refused to specialize in either philosophy or history, taking an honours degree in both. His philosophy of history was an integrated as part of his historical work, and his classic book "Roman Britain" can be read as an example of his philosophy of history.

He also published "The First Mate's Log" (1940), an account of a yachting voyage in the Mediterranean, in the company of several of his students.

After many years of ill health Collingwood died at Coniston in January 1943.

• Religion and Philosophy (1916) ISBN 1-85506-317-4
• Roman Britain (1923, ed. 2, 1932) ISBN 0-8196-1160-3
• Speculum Mentis (1924)
• Outlines of a Philosophy of Art (1925)
• The Archaeology of Roman Britain (1930)
• An Essay on Philosophic Method (1933, rev. ed. 2005). ISBN 1-85506-392-1
• Roman Britain and the English Settlements (with J. N. L. Myres, 1936, second edition 1937)
• The Principles of Art (1938) ISBN 0-19-500209-1
• An Autobiography (1939) ISBN 0-19-824694-3
• An Essay on Metaphysics (1940, revised edition 1998). ISBN 0-8191-3315-9
• The New Leviathan (1942, rev. ed. 1992) ISBN 0-19-823880-0

• The Idea of Nature (1945) ISBN 0-19-500217-2
• The Idea of History (1946, revised edition 1993). ISBN 0-19-285306-6
• Essays in the Philosophy of Art (1964)
• Essays in the Philosophy of History (1965) ISBN 0-8240-6355-4
• Essays in Political Philosophy (1989) ISBN 0-19-823566-6
• The Principles of History and Other Writings in Philosophy of History (2001) ISBN 0-19-924315-8
• The Philosophy of Enchantment: Studies in Folktale, Cultural Criticism, and Anthropology (2005) ISBN 0-19-926253-5

All 'revised' editions comprise the original text plus a new introduction and extensive additional material.

1. ^ Mink, Louis O. (1969). Mind, History, and Dialectic. Indiana University Press, 1.

• Additional Articles and Documents by R. G. Collingwood
• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry