SOURCE: "Logic and History: An Assessment of R. G. Collingwood's Idea of History," in The Australasian Journal of Philosophy, Vol. XXVI, No. 2, September, 1948, pp. 94-113.

In the following essay, Buchdahl focuses on Collingwood's approach in The Idea of History to the problematic nature of historical facts and historical knowledge.

This article is not concerned with everything Collingwood has had to say about history, but only some interesting parts of certain passages in his Idea of History. The problem dealt with in those passages is: How can we give an account of historical facts, how can there be historical knowledge? And this may (without perhaps prejudging the issue too much) be divided into: (a) how much can we discover as having occurred? (b) what is the best explanation that can be given of these occurrences?

I say I do not want to prejudge the issue by subdividing our question...