Realism and Idealism

This volume presents several unpublished works by R. G. Collingwood (1889-1943), providing indispensable context for understanding and reconstructing Collingwood's conception of the nature of metaphysical inquiry. 'Central Problems in Metaphysics: Realism and Idealism' consists of notes made for lectures delivered at the University of Oxford in 1936, in which Collingwood attempts to find a resolution to the realism-idealism debate that had dominated British philosophy since the closing decades of the nineteenth century. Other writings include selected passages from his 'Notes Towards a Metaphysic', the complete manuscript of 'The Nature of Metaphysical Study', and the dossier prepared for Collingwood's appointment to the Waynflete Professorship of Metaphysical Philosophy in 1935. The editors' Introduction outlines the historical background to the realism-idealism debate in the Oxbridge milieu during the first half of the twentieth century. The postface argues that the contrast between 'Central Problems in Metaphysics' and the view of metaphysics as an historical discipline in An Essay in Metaphysics is largely superficial, and that, properly understood, Collingwood's philosophy shows complementarity and unity.