R. G. COLLINGWOOD’S HERMENEUTICS OF HISTORY

R. G. COLLINGWOOD’S HERMENEUTICS OF HISTORY

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

Contents

Chapter 1: Introduction

Preface

Section 1. Research Motive

Section 2. Research Methodology

Section 3. Research Objective

Chapter 2: The Development of Collingwood’s Historical Thought: From ‘History as Facts’ to ‘History as Thought’

Preface

Section 1. Collingwood’s Life

Section 2. Interpretation of Collingwood’s Thought: Knox’s Misinterpretation

Part 1: Knox on the ‘Radical Conversion Hypothesis’

Section 3. Challenges and Construction of Collingwood’s Thought: Dialog and Debate on Realism and Positivism

Part 1: The Fallacy of Realism

1. Fallacy of Realism’s Theory of Knowledge

2. The Contradiction of Realist Moral Philosophy

3. The Error of the Scissors and Paste Theory of Realism

Part 2: The Falsehood of Positivism

Section 4. The Development of Collingwood’s Thought: The Establishment and Completion of Scientific History as well as the Science of Human Nature

Part 1: A Young Collingwood’s Pondering of Historical Knowledge

Part 2: The Completion of the History of Science: All History is the History of Thought

1. The Definition of the Philosophy of History

2. The Aim of Collingwood’s Philosophy of History

Part 3: Historical Consciousness and the Crisis of European Civilization

Section 5. The Establishment and Completion of the Theory of the Hermeneutics of History: Vico, Dilthey,

and Collingwood

Part 1: Collingwood and Vico

1. Vico and Historicism

2. Vico and the Refutation of Cartesianism

3. Vico’s ‘Verum et factum convertuntur’

Section 6. Collingwood and Dilthey

Part 1: Dilthey and Spiritual Science

Part 2: Hermeneutics: The Methodology of the Human Sciences

Summary

Chapter 3: The Historical Methodology of Hermeneutics: The Principles of Collingwood’s Logic of Question and Answer

Preface

Section 1. The Nature of the Logic of Question and Answer

Part 1: Re-construction of the Question as a Method of Historical Understanding

Part 2: The Construction of Knowledge as a Result of the Process and the Act of Questioning and Answering

Section 2. The Dialogue between Collingwood and

The Albert Memorial

Section 3. Cognitive Activities of the Mind as the Activity of Question and Answer

Part 1: The Logic of Question and Answer as a Method of Historical Hermeneutics

Part 2: The Construction of Knowledge Through the Activity of Questioning and Answering

Section 4. A Criticism of Realism

Part 1: Criticism of Realism’s Views on Epistemology

1: A Criticism of the Realist Perspective on the ‘Eternal Questions of Philosophy’

2: A Criticism of Realism’s ‘Method of Philosophical Critique’

Section 5. The Logic of Question and Answer as a ‘Baconian Revolution’ of Historical Methodology

Part 1: Different Sciences Require Different Scientific Methodologies

Part 2: The Difference Between the Logic of Question and Answer in Scientific History and in the Natural Sciences

Conclusion

Chapter 4: Collingwood on Historical Evidence

Preface

Section 1. Restoring the Importance of Historical Evidence in Collingwood’s Thought

Section 2. The Relationship between Historians and Historical Evidence

Part 1: Historical Evidence as the Basis of Historical Knowledge and Historical Thinking

Part 2: Historical Evidence is the Product of the Dialog between ‘the Past’ and ‘the Present’

Part 3: History Is the ‘Past Shown by Evidence’, Not the ‘Past as it Actually Was’

Conclusion

Part 1: The Relationship between Absolute Presuppositions, the Logic of Question and Logic, and Historical Evidence

Part 2: The Relationship between Historical Evidence and the Doctrine of Re-Enactment

Chapter 5: The Theory of Re-enactment

Preface

Section 1. History as a Hermeneutical Science

Part 1: Re-enactment as a Way of Understanding: The Dialogue between Present (the Self) and Past (the Other)

Part 2: History as the Re-enactment of Past Experiences and Thought

Section 2. History as a Science of Humanity

Part 1: A Critique of the Traditional Science of Human Nature

1. The Folly of Substantialism

2. The Folly of Scientism

Section 3. History as the True Science of Human Nature

Part 1: History as the History of Man’s Deeds

Part 2: The Logic of the Theory of Re-enactment is the Logic of Concrete Situational Thinking

Part 3: The Historical Explanation and the ‘Cause of Action’ According to the Theory of Re-enactment

Section 4. Re-enactment as the Re-construction of the Activity of Question and Answer

Part 1: Various Meanings of ‘Re-enactment’

1. Historical Re-Enactment is a Science of History

Part 2: The Object of Re-enactment is Thought

1. The Definition of Thought

2. The duality of thought: It is direct experience and indirect experience; it is special and it is universal; it is subjective and it is objective

Part 3: Interpretation of Theory of Re-enactment

Section 5. Re-enactment is the Dialogue between

the Past and Present

Conclusion

Chapter 6: Conclusion

References

INDEX