The Origins of R. G. Collingwood's Philosophy of History in his Philosophy of Religion, 1916–1943

Abstract

This article argues that R.G. Collingwood's philosophy of history was deeply rooted in his early philosophy of religion as expounded in Religion and Philosophy (1916). Although scholars have tended to separate Collingwood's early religious ideas from his later writings, this study demonstrates that his theory of history was informed by his endeavour to solve the theological problems raised by what he regarded as the reductionism of two Oxford philosophical schools: realism and idealism. In response, he defended a conception of thought as a qualitatively distinct, irreducible activity, enabling him to reinterpret central Christian doctrines, such as the incarnation and atonement, in historical terms. Christ's omniscience, for example, was reconceived as the knowledge of a perfect historian who understood human motives without predetermining them. This dualist conception of thought prefigured the metaphysical premise of his later theory that history was the re‐enactment of past thoughts. The article traces how these themes, first articulated in theological contexts, informed his later works from Speculum Mentis (1924) to the Essay on Metaphysics (1940). It concludes that the origins of Collingwood's philosophy of history cannot be separated from his philosophy of religion: both emerged from a defence of human freedom, historical meaning, and Christian theism.