Rethinking R.G. Collingwood

Gary K. Browning's previous monographs are "Plato and Hegel: Two Modes of Philosophising about Politics" (1991), "Hegel and the History of Political Philosophy" (1999) and "Lyotard and the End of Grand Narratives" (2000). He has co-written "Politics: An Introduction" (1997 and 2002) and co-edited "Understanding Contemporary Society - Theories of the Present2 (2000) as well as editing "Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit: A Reappraisal" (1997).

Collingwood reviews Collingwood's thought via his own rethinking of Hegel. Collingwood is seen as avoiding the pitfalls of Hegel's teleological historicism by developing an open and contestable reading of the rationality of liberal civilization, which neither reduces practice to theory nor philosophy to history.Rethinking R.G. Collingwood reviews Collingwood's thought via his own rethinking of Hegel. It establishes the revisionary character of Collingwood's defence of liberal civilization in theory and practice. Collingwood is seen as avoiding the pitfalls of Hegel's teleological historicism by developing an open and contestable reading of the rationality of liberal civilization, which neither reduces practice to theory nor philosophy to history. The contemporary relevance of Collingwood's standpoint is demonstrated by comparing it with those of recent defenders and critics of liberalism Rawls, Lyotard and MacIntyre.