Speculum Mentis or The Map of Knowledge

by R.G. Collingwood

This early work by Robin G. Collingwood was originally published in 1924 and we are now republishing it with a brand new introductory biography. 'Speculum Mentis' is an academic work on the subject of philosophy. Robin George Collingwood was born on 22nd February 1889, in Cartmel, England. He was the son of author, artist, and academic, W. G. Collingwood. He was greatly influenced by the Italian Idealists Croce, Gentile, and Guido de Ruggiero. Another important influence was his father, a professor of fine art and a student of Ruskin. He published many works of philosophy, such as Speculum Mentis (1924), An Essay on Philosophic Method (1933), and An Essay on Metaphysics (1940).

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1924

About the author

Robin George Collingwood was an English philosopher and historian. Collingwood was a fellow of Pembroke College, Oxford, for some 15 years until becoming the Waynflete Professor of Metaphysical Philosophy at Magdalen College, Oxford.

Reviews

[Brett · Rating 4 out of 5]

My kind of book! One of the hardest thing to do is see errors in thinking. Overall this book gives a great discussion about forms of thinking namely art, religion, science, history, and philosophy, what are the inherent errors, and further, how each has its place in the development of a human, or humanity, and how one form of thinking can lead to the other in a kind of cycle.

Also there was a great insight into the metaphorical nature of religious thinking completely missed by both the religious and the rationalists that oppose them.

In the end the goal is that the mind should know itself.

Quote near end:
In an immediate and direct way, the mind can never know itself it can only know itself through the mediation of an external world, know that what it sees in the external world is its own reflection.

Another quote:
We did not assume that any one form of experience could be accepted as already, in its main lines, wholly free from error. Led by this principle, we found that the real world was implied, but not asserted, in art; asserted, but not thought out, in religion; thought out, but only subject to fictitious assumptions, in science; and therefore in all these we found an ostensible object—the work of art, God, the material universe—which was confessedly a figment and not the real object. The real object is the mind itself, as we now know.

This book will excercise your mind!

Note 1: I was happy to have read "The Idea of History" by R. G. Collingwood first, even though it was published later. It gave the background for talking about history, and thinking, only briefly touched upon in this book.


Note 2: there are errors in the Kindle version of the book from the OCR scanning that have not been caught by the editing. However it is still very readable

[John Russon · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best books of philosophy ever written. The deceptively easy writing style will take you through many of the hardest thoughts in philosophy without you even noticing it. Also true of his Principles of Art.

[An Te · Rating 3 out of 5]

Profound and thoughtful but a rehash of his thoughts. A lesser read book of his.

[Stephen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book that tries too hard - and Carnap wrote something equivalent, nevertheless even if RG has overextended himself, as my maths teacher would say, the working out of the problem (even if the result is wrong) is often very legitimate. We can learn from this - Collingwood did.

[Citesc · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a whole is a good book and has insightful ideas!

[Ian Carmichael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully written, tantalising contents. Excellent epistemolgy.