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Human Understanding in the Philosophy of R.G. Collingwood HUMAN UNDERSTANDING IN THE PHILOSOPHY OF R.G. COLLINGWOOD JOHN KARABELAS PhD, CARDIFF UNIVERSITY 2009 HUMAN UNDERSTANDING IN THE PHILOSOPHY OF R.G. COLLINGWOOD JOHN KARABELAS PhD, CARDIFF UNIVERSITY 2009 UMI Number: U585273 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Dissertation Publishing UMI U585273 Published by ProQuest LLC 2013. Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 DECLARATION This workha&not previously been accepted in substance for any degree and is not concurrently submitted in candidature for any degree. S ig n e^j^. .................. (candidate) Date ^.f.. .7.. STATEMENT 1 This thesis is bfiioo submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of i.(insert MCh, MD, MPhil, PhD etc, as appropriate) Signedf (candidate) Date .l^ .....^ ..(c/....'?^f!0.C\. STATEMENT 2 This thesis is the result of my own independent work/investigation, except where otherwise stated. Other sources are acknowledged by explicit references. Sign (candidate) Date .1^9.... STATEMENT 3 I hereby give consent for my thesis, if accepted, to be available for photocopying and for inter-library loan, and for the title and summary to be made available to outside organisatjj Signe< (candidate) D a t e . ^ . ^ ...... STATEMENT 4: PREVIOUSLY APPROVED BAR ON ACCESS I hereby give consent for my thesis, if accepted, to be available for photocopying and for inter-library loans after expiry of a bar on access previously approved by the Graduate Development Committee. Signed (candidate) Date Acknowledgements For the completion of this thesis I owe much to the guidance and attitude to scholarship of my supervisors Professor David Boucher and Professor Bruce Haddock. I am indebted to the department of European Studies and to the British Idealism and Collingwood Centre for their support. My gratitude extends to all my friends and I thank them deeply. I dedicate this thesis to my parents. J.K. Abstract The thesis explores the role of human understanding in R.G. Collingwood’s philosophy. I examine four major areas: the role of psychology, the unity of mind (i.e. unity of thoughts and emotions), the role of art and the case of fairy tales as a source of historical knowledge. These themes taken together expound a coherent way to see human understanding: with psychology Collingwood suggests the form that human understanding cannot assume; the unity of mind is Collingwood’s idea of how we experience an activity, that is, as an undivided whole of emotions and thoughts (and in some respects sensations or feelings too), that exist in every activity as elements that cannot be distinguished or separated. When we come to the forms that an activity can take 1 argue, using art and fairy tales, that human understanding in Collingwood’s system should be seen as a shift from the knowledge of the united spirit (as propounded in Speculum Mentis) to the knowledge of the historical consciousness. The knowledge of the united spirit is achieved through a dialectic scale of the different forms of experience, which individually, in isolation from one another, are not epistemologically valid. In the historical consciousness the forms of experience are epistemologically autonomous and are found within history, all being manifestations of the historical mind. CONTENTS p a g e List of Abbreviations vi INTRODUCTION 1 I: Philosophy, History and Psychology 13 II: The importance of mind’s unity 47 III: From Imagination to Knowledge - The problem of art and the problem of history 80 IV": Fairy tales, Magic and Anthropology 121 CONCLUSION 152 BIBLIOGRAPHY 157 List of Abbreviations Works by R.G. Collimnvood RP Religion and Philosophy, 1916 SM Speculum Mentis, 1924 OPA Outlines of a Philosophy of Art, 1925 PA The Principles of Art, 1938 A An Autobiography, 1939 EM An Essay on Metaphysics, 1940 (rev. ed. 1998) NL The New Leviathan, 1942 (rev. ed. 1992) IH The Idea of History, 1946 (rev. ed. 1993) PH The Principles of History, 1999 PE The Philosophy of Enchantment, 2005 Works bv others Debbins Essays in the Philosophy of History, 1965 Donagan The Later Philosophy of R.G. Collingwood, 1962 Dray History as Re-enactment. R.G. Collingwood’s Idea of History, 1995 MHD Mind, History, Dialectic, 1969 HS History as a Science: The Philosophy of R.G. Collingwood, 1981 SPT The social and political thought of R.G. Collingwood, 1989 Krausz Critical Essays on the Philosophy of R.G. Collingwood, 1972 PHC Philosophy, History and Civilization, 1995 Rubinoff Collingwood and the Reform of Metaphysics, 1970 Taylor 1985 Bibliography, 1985 Taylor 1988 Bibliography, 1988 Coll i mr* ood Studies CS Collingwood Studies, 1994-1999 (vols I-VI) Collingwood and British Idealism Studies, 2000-2004 (vols VII-X) Collingwood and British Idealism Studies: incorporating Bradley Studies, 2005-2008 (vols XI-XIV) vi INTRODUCTION This thesis is about Collingwood’s philosophy of history and human understanding.1 Human understanding is central in Collingwood’s philosophy. In Speculum Mentis he maintains that “We try to understand ourselves and our world only in order that we may learn how to live” (p. 15). His philosophy, like Giambattista Vico’s and Wilhelm Dilthey’s, is highly anthropocentric.' Man is the focus of philosophical reflection and the study of human conduct ensues in the understanding of him: what it is that he does; why he does what he does; why sometimes he fails and sometimes succeeds. This understanding is for Collingwood the role of history. The engagement with human understanding, in the way that Collingwood proceeded, is an important endeavour. It is an endeavour understood in terms of a constant effort towards 1 For some general books on the philosophy of history and some useful classical philosophical expositions of the problems of history see: W.H. Walsh. 1951. An introduction to philosophy of history. Hutchinson. London (3rd rev. ed. 1967); B.A. Haddock. 1980.An introduction to historical thought. London, Edward Arnold; R. Martin. 1977.Historical Explanation, Re-enactment and practical inference. Cornell University Press; R. Klibansky and H.J. Paton (eds.). 1936.Philosophy & history: essays presented to Ernst Cassirer. Oxford Clarendon Press [also Collingwood’s review of that book in 1937 in English Historical Review, vol. 52, pp. 141-146 (reprinted in CS, vol. V, 1998, pp. 145-151)]; I. Berlin. 1960. ‘The Concept of Scientific History’, in History and Theory, vol. 1, no 1, pp. 1-31; F.H. Bradley. 1874.The Presuppositions of Critical History, (reprinted in C ollected Essays, 1969, pp. 1-70. Oxford Clarendon Press. This book was first published in 1935 in two volumes). “ For more details on the work of Vico see: G. Vico. 1968. The New Science o f Giambattista Vico. (revised translation of the third edition (1744) / Thomas Goddard Bergin and Max Harold Fisch) Ithaca, N.Y: Cornell University Press; G. Vico. 1944. The autobiography o f Giambattista Vico. (translated from the Italian by Max Harold Fisch and Thomas Goddard Bergin) Imprint Ithaca, N.Y: Cornell University Press; B. Croce. 1913. The Philosophy of Giambattista Vico. Translated by R.G. Collingwood. London; I. Berlin. 1976. Vico and Herder: Two studies in the history of ideas. The Hogarth Press; I. Berlin. 1979. ‘Vico’s Concept of Knowledge’, in Against the current: Essays in the History of Ideas (H. Hardy ed.), pp. 111-119 (originally published in 1969); I. Berlin. 1979. ‘Vico and the Ideal of the Enlightenment’, in Against the current: Essays in the History of Ideas (H. Hardy ed.), pp. 120-129 (originally published in 1976); I. Berlin. 1990. ‘Giambattista Vico and Cultural History’, in The Crooked Timber of Humanity: Chapters in the History of Ideas (H. Hardy ed.), pp. 49-69 (originally published in 1983); B.A. Haddock. 1986.Vico's Political Thought. Swansea; L. Pompa. (ed.). 1982. Vico: Selected Writings. CUP; L. Pompa. 1990. Vico: A study of the ‘New Science’. CUP; B.A. Haddock. 1995. ‘Vico, Collingwood and the Character of a Historical Philosophy’, in PHC, pp. 130-151. Also F. Copleston. 1960. A History of Philosophy, (Vol. Bums6). & Oates (Part III “The rise of the philosophy of history”, pp. 150-179. On Giambattista Vico pp. 154-163). For more details on the work of Dilthev see: W. Dilthey. 1883. Einleitung in die Geisteswissenschaften. (Introduction to the Human Sciences, edited, with an introduction, by Rudolf A. Makkreel and Frithjof Rodi, 1989, Princeton University Press); M. Ermarth. 1978.Wilhelm Dilthey: The Critique of Historical Reason. Chicago; J. Owensby. 1994.Dilthey and the Narrative of History. Ithaca, N Y ; T. Plantinga. 1980. Historical Understanding in the Thought of Wilhelm Dilthey. Toronto; H.P. Rickman. 1961. Meaning in History: W. Diltheys's thoughts on history and society, (edited and introduced by Rickman) London: Allen & Unwin; H.P. Rickman (ed.). 1976. Wilhelm Dilthey: Selected Writings. Cambridge; H.P. Rickman. 1979.Wilhelm Dilthey: Pioneer of the Human Studies. London. 1 INTRODUCTION the possibility of knowledge about man. Furthermore such knowledge is the necessary prerequisite, without which any further attempts of comprehending meaningfully other aspects of human life are ill founded. In his Autobiography Collingwood contends that the inability to control human situations was the reason for WWI and he believes that only “understanding of human affairs” (A, p. 92) will provide such control. It is no coincidence that Collingwood in NL adopted the structure of Hobbes and began with a section on man: the understanding of man comes first.
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