R. G. Collingwood (1889-1943)
Idea of History

Robin George Collingwood, or R. G. Collingwood as he is more usually known, was Waynefleet Professor of Metaphysical Philosophy at Oxford University from 1935 to 1941.

During his career Collingwood attempted to integrate and understand human experience and knowledge, and to bring together history and philosophy. He considered that worthwhile historical studies must take on board, as a key aspect of their proper function, the goal of self-knowledge of the mind.

His major work, The Idea of History, was published posthumously in 1946.
In the introduction to The Idea of History Collingwood attempted to define a "philosophy of history" and discussed the nature, object, method and value of history. He maintained that historical studies should be recognised as being potentially productive of results that should be as entitled to be condidered to be knowledge as those of the natural sciences. He sought "to vindicate history as a form of knowledge distinct from natural science and yet valid in its own right."

"History is for human self-knowledge ... the only clue to what man can do is what man has done. The value of history, then, is that it teaches us what man has done and thus what man is."
R. G. Collingwood