Objectivity, Method and Point of View: Essays in the Philosophy of History [Philosophy of history and culture, 6]

The essays collected together in this volume originated with a symposium which addressed a variety of issues associated with the publications of Professor W.H. Dray in the philosophy of history. In this expanded version of the original symposium, to which Professor Dray has provided a critical response, a group of prominent philosophers and historians address the central questions posed by contemporary philosophy of history - such as, the logic and methodology of historical explanation, the selection and uses of evidence, the fact/value relationship, the nature of historical causation, the question of conflicting interpretations and their possible resolution, the idea of history as a school of practical wisdom, and the question whether history has any discernable pattern or meaning. These issues are approached from the experience of both historians and philosophers and represent an important increment to the long-standing and continuing debates concerning the nature and aims of the practice and philosophy of history.

W.J. van der Dussen is Professor of Cultural Studies at the Open University at Heerlen, The Netherlands. Publications: History as a Science. The Philosophy of R.G. Collingwood (1981); Filosofie van de Geschiedenis (1986), and Filosofie van de Geschiedwetenschappen (1988).
Lionel Rubinoff is currently Professor of Philosophy and Environmental Studies and chairman elect of the Philosophy Department at Trent University in Peterborough, Canada. Publications: The Pornography of Power (1968); Faith and Reason: Collingwood's Philosophy of Religion (1968); F.H.Bradley's The Presuppositions of Critical History (1968); Collingwood and the Reform of Metaphysics (1970), and Tradition and Revolution (1970).