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In his Autobiography Collingwood encapsulates his life's work in an evocative formula. He professes, "My life's work hitherto, as seen from my fiftieth year, has been in the main an attempt to bring about a rapprochementbetween philosophy and history."¹ This reminiscence is suggestive rather than definitive. Its status reflects the character of Collingwood's Autobiography, which confirms the scepticism that Collingwood himself maintains over the historical value of biography. It is not the expression of a careful sifting of evidence relating to his intellectual development, but a passionate declaration of the nature and value of an intellectual life in the light of a contemporary crisis of civilization.² Collingwood's principled defence of his own intellectual standpoint highlights its emergence in the context of his own distinct practical and theoretical interests, and against the background of an unpropitious intellectual and political atmosphere. An Autobiography testifies to Collingwood's perception of the connections underlying his intellectual commitments and to his concern to press his reflections on theory into the practical service of defending civilized values. Collingwood's espousal of a lifelong commitment to a rapprochement between philosophy and history is suggestive of a characteristic style of philosophizing that connects aspects of experience by rethinking their conditionality.

DOI: 10.1057/9780230005754_4

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