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A Reading of RG Collingwood Medhat Mahmoud Khattar Doctor Of History as Mind Atoned: A Reading of R.G. Collingwood Medhat Mahmoud Khattar Doctor of Philosophy University of York Politics June 2020 Abstract This thesis advances a new reading and interpretation of the philosophy of Robin George Collingwood (1889-1943). It explores Collingwood’s conception of Western civilization— which he sometimes identified with liberalism—as a civilization that is ultimately rooted in the Christian faith and animated by a conception of freedom of the will as the achievement of historical consciousness. The organizing hypothesis is that Collingwood gave a central place to Christian faith in Western civilization. He assumed that, so far from being aberrant or infantile, religion was one of the chief forms of consciousness along with art, science, history and philosophy, that religious insight was the key to understanding human history, and that without the vital spark it kindled, civilization could not survive. Self-knowledge was a dialectical movement from this religious insight towards a higher-order historical consciousness of the self in possession of free will, which involved consciousness of others as possessing free will of their own. The well-being and vitality of Western civilization, and its preservation in the face of the forces of barbarism, is shown to depend in Collingwood’s view upon continuous nourishment from its Christian ‘absolute presuppositions’, and, more broadly, from what Collingwood described as ‘the central doctrine of Christianity’, the idea of the Incarnation and Atonement. In his hands, this idea was translated into terms of universal significance: mind, history, and community were explicated in those terms and fell into one pattern of explanation, in which false oppositions were exposed and transcended through the reconciliation of the infinite and the finite, the eternal and the temporal, thought and mind, mind and man, man and man, man and God. The thesis presents Collingwood’s enquiries into religion, art, history, philosophy and politics and his arguments for a reformed metaphysics and a reformed conception of history as aspects of a single picture that was structured by his vision of the Incarnation as the (self) revelation to man that ‘he can become God, can be what he ought to be.’ What this meant for Collingwood was giving life to the divine spirit in man, by becoming or being ‘the right 2 kind’ of person, one capable qua moral agent of acting dutifully and qua historian of entering into the minds of the persons whose actions he or she was studying. Such a person embodies in fact, to a greater or lesser degree, the Collingwoodian ideal I call in this thesis the atoned mind: for he is to that degree at one with himself and other men, and is eo ipso free. The thesis demonstrates this through an effort to circumvent dominant analytic and technical readings of Collingwood on the one hand, and on the other hand, to embrace a reading of Collingwood’s historicism not as a problem to be solved, but as the solution to a problem imposed by a naturalistic philosophy of history. Only when the Atonement is taken seriously as thought, is it possible to begin to understand the nature of the ideal that underpins the European Christian mind, and why Collingwood insisted that Western liberalism is an expression of Christianity in theory and in practice. 3 Acknowledgments I feel indebted to The Morrell Trust and to the Department of Politics at York for the opportunity they gave me to pursue this work, and for their generosity in more ways than I can adequately describe, including making this work financially possible through tuition fee waiver, along with an incredible degree of understanding of my work and life circumstances. I am grateful to Dr Mónica Brito Vieira, my second supervisor, for the fruitful meetings I had with her. In particular, I am grateful to Mónica’s encouragement overall, and specifically her advice that I include in the work an appropriate comparative account between Skinner and Collingwood on the philosophy of history. I wish to thank Professor James Connelly at the University of Hull for his advice at the times I sought it, and for his generous sharing with me of the transcript of the unpublished Collingwood manuscript The Philosophy of the Christian Religion. I am grateful to my family, and to my friends (especially Brian Cuthbert) who listened to me talking about Collingwood, and helped me by simply being there, and by being supportive and encouraging, and for sharing their reflections on my thoughts. I started this work a number of years ago under the supervision of Dr Jon Parkin, to whom I owe gratitude for accepting me initially to do this work, and for his advice and support in the early stages before his move away from York. Thereafter, I was supervised by Professor Tim Stanton to whom I owe most. Throughout this endeavour, Tim’s advice, and feedback on written material, support, guidance, patience and faith – all had a grounding influence. It is my hope that, at least, some elements of the work presented here would make the support I received from Tim and from York worthwhile. 4 Author's declaration I declare that this thesis is a presentation of original work and I am the sole author. This work has not previously been presented for an award at this, or any other, University. All sources are acknowledged as References. 5 Dedication To the memory of Mahmoud Sayed-Ahmed Khattar, my father. 6 Abbreviations After the first citation, the following works will be referred to in footnotes using the abbreviations below. AA An Autobiography (1939) EM An Essay on Metaphysics (1940) EPM An Essay on Philosophical Method (1933) EPP Essays in Political Philosophy (1989) EPR Faith and Reason: Essays in the Philosophy of Religion (1968) IH The Idea of History (1946) NL The New Leviathan (1942) PE Philosophy of Enchantment (2005) PH The Principles of History (1999) RP Religion and Philosophy (RP) SM Speculum Mentis (SM) 7 List of Contents Abstract ............................................................................................................................................... 2 Acknowledgments ............................................................................................................................... 4 Author's declaration ........................................................................................................................... 5 Dedication ........................................................................................................................................... 6 Abbreviations ...................................................................................................................................... 7 List of Contents ................................................................................................................................... 8 Introduction ...................................................................................................................................... 10 Chapter One: The Space of Perspectives I — Collingwood and absolute presuppositions .............. 29 R. G. Collingwood’s life and career ............................................................................................... 29 Interpretative problems and principles ........................................................................................ 35 The Collingwood Controversies .................................................................................................... 44 Radical conversion and historical relativism ................................................................................. 47 The absoluteness of absolute presuppositions ............................................................................ 56 Chapter Two: The Space of Perspectives II—Re-enactment, historicism and Christianity ............... 68 Re-enactment perspectives .......................................................................................................... 68 W. H. Dray on re-enactment ......................................................................................................... 72 Widening the focus: Boucher and Haddock .................................................................................. 77 Beyond method: Collingwood’s historicism and moral and political philosophy ......................... 83 Christianity and Historicism .......................................................................................................... 87 Christianity, Re-Enactment and Historicism in Collingwood ........................................................ 96 A Brief Word about Relativism .................................................................................................... 101 Chapter Three: Knowledge and Metaphysics ................................................................................. 105 Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 105 Knowledge as consciousness ...................................................................................................... 107 The mind ‘creates itself’ .............................................................................................................. 111 Metaphysics as a historical science ............................................................................................ 121 Chapter Four: Historiography and Collingwood’s Metaphysics ....................................................
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