R.G. Collingwood (1889-1943) was a British philosopher and practicing archaeologist, best known for his work in aesthetics and the philosophy of history. During the 1950s and 1960s, his philosophy of history, in particular, occupied center stage in the debate concerning the nature of explanation in the social sciences and whether they are ultimately reducible to explanations in the natural sciences. Primarily through the interpretative efforts of W. H. Dray, Collingwood's work in the philosophy
