COLLINGWOOD AND TOYNBEE
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17072/2219-3111-2025-3-5-14Keywords:
R. J. Collingwood, A. J. Toynbee, The Idea of History, A Study of History, relativity of histori cal thinking, the meaning of history, historical cognitionAbstract
The article is devoted to the analysis of the critical remarks of Collingwood and Toynbee addressed to each oth er, made in the "Idea of History" and "Comprehension of History". This exchange of opinions didn’t become a dis cussion due to Collingwood's early death, and therefore not all of its provisions remained clarified, and its acutely polemical nature on Collingwood's part confirmed the opinion in the scientific community about the opposition of their views. Meanwhile, an analysis of their mutual criticism allows us to conclude misunderstanding both thinkers each other in the matters of the relativity of historical knowledge, the possibility of scientific knowledge of history and its conceptualization. Collingwood, criticizing Toynbee for his objectivism, didn’t notice in his concept the rea soning about the relativity of historical thinking. Toynbee, criticizing Collingwood for excessive intellectualism, didn’t understand that his way of conceptualizing history includes an analysis of human ways of thinking, but not just a rational component. A comparative analysis of their positions shows that, conflicting with each other on individual points, they held similar ideas about the purpose of history and some fundamental principles of historical knowledge. Both sought a way out of the crisis of historical knowledge through criticism of positivism and the excessive scien tism of historical cognition. Both saw this solution in a middle position between historicism and the philosophy of history. Both linked the study of the past with a universal view of history to solve the problems of the present.References
Воробьева О.В. «Он поразил меня с силой откровения»: бергсонианские мотивы в творчестве Тойнби со временем. DOI: 10.21267/aquilo.2023.84.84.026. EDN: DRIWGK. 2023. № 84. С. 43–60.
Воробьева О.В. Методологическая одиссея А.Дж. Тойнби // Профессиональная идентичность и самосознание историка. М.: ИВИ РАН, 2022. С. 74–98.
Воробьева ОВ. Три возраста А. Дж. Тойнби // Идеи и люди: интеллектуальная культура Европы в Новое время / под ред. Л.П. Репиной. М.: Аквилон, 2014. C. 773–842.
Мосс М. Коллингвуд Робин Джордж // Великие мыслители Запада / пер. с англ. В. Федорина. М.: Крон-пресс, 1998. С. 725–730.
Benedetto Croce: an Autobiography / transl. from the Italian by R.G. Collingwood; with a preface by J.A. Smith. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1927. 116 p.
Croce B. Historical Materialism and the Economics of Karl Marx / transl. by A.D. Lindsey. New York: Macmillan, 1914. 224 p.
Croce B. The Philosophy of Giambattista Vico / transl. by R.G. Collingwood. London, 1913. 317 p.
Myers E.D. A Note on Collingwood's Criticism of Toynbee // Journal of Philosophy. 1947. Vol. 44 (18). P. 485–489.
Renier G.J. History: Its Purpose and Method. London: Allen & Unwin, 1950.
Toynbee and History. Boston, 1956. 385 p.
White H. Collingwood and Toynbee: Transitions in English Historical Thought // White H. The Fiction of Narrative: Essays on History, Literature, and Theory, 1957–2007 / ed. and with an introduction by R. Doran. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2010. P. 1–22.
References
Croce, B. (1913). The philosophy of Giambattista Vico (R. G. Collingwood, Trans.). Howard Latimer.
Croce, B. (1914). Historical materialism and the economics of Karl Marx (A. D. Lindsey, Trans.). Macmillan.
Croce, B. (1927). An autobiography (R. G. Collingwood, Trans.). Clarendon Press. (Original work published 1918).
Moss, M. (1998). Collingwood, Robin George. In Velikiye mysliteli Zapada [Great thinkers of the Western world] (V. Fedorin, Trans.; pp. 725–730). Kron-Press.
Myers, E. D. (1947). A note on Collingwood's criticism of Toynbee. The Journal of Philosophy, 44(18), 485–489.
Renier, G. J. (1950). History: Its purpose and method. Allen & Unwin.
Toynbee and history: Critical essays and reviews. (1956). Porter Sargent.
Vorobieva, O. V. (2014). The three ages of A. J. Toynbee. In Idei i lyudi: intellektual'naya kul'tura Evropy v Novoye vremya [Ideas and people: The intellectual culture of Europe in modern times] (pp. 773–842). Akvilon.
Vorobieva, O. V. (2022). The methodological odyssey of A. J. Toynbee. In Professional'naya identichnost' i samosoznanie istorika [Professional identity and self-consciousness of a historian] (pp. 74–98). IVI RAN.
Vorobieva, O. V. (2023). "He struck me with the force of a revelation": Bergsonian motifs in A. J. Toynbee's works. Dialog so vremenem, 84, 43–60.
White, H. (2010). Collingwood and Toynbee: Transitions in English historical thought. In R. Doran (Ed.), The fiction of narrative: Essays on history, literature, and theory, 1957–2007 (pp. 1–22). Johns Hopkins University Press.
