History as Re-enactment: R. G. Collingwood's Idea of History

by William H. Dray

Overview

This book explains and defends a central ideas in the theory of history put forward by R. G. Collingwood, perhaps the foremost philosopher of history in the 20th century. Professor Dray analyses critically the idea of re-enactment, explores the limits of its applicability, and determines its relationship to other key Collingwoodian ideas, such as the role of imagination in historical thinking, and the indispensability of a point of view.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780198238812
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	04/29/1999
Pages:	360
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.70(d)
Lexile:	1620L (what's this?)

About the Author

University of Ottawa (Emeritus)

Table of Contents

1. History and Philosophy2. Re-enactment and Understanding3. Re-enactment and Laws4. Intellect, Rationality, Feeling5. The Physical and the Social6. The Historical Imagination7. The Ideality of History8. The Perspectivity of HistoryEpilogueBibliographyIndex

Editorial Reviews

"Dray is a very careful writer, and his analysis of Collingwood's philosophy of history is unparalleled in its scope and in its balance. [He] is also a very clear writer, and the book is well organized...[A] fine study, perhaps the single best account of the pertinent ideas of this century's most eminent philosopher of history."—Modern Europe

From the Publisher