Abstract
In this essay, my focus is R. G. Collingwood's historicized moral thinking. For Collingwood, the main categories of practical reason are utility, right and duty; they differ both in kind and in degree and exhibit different levels of rationality. Drawing on Collingwood's idealist notion of "the scale of forms" and his unique version of historicism, I try to make the point that for Collingwood the consciousness of duty -- that is, the highest form of practical reason -- is ultimately identical with historical consciousness. In this sense, it seems to me that Collingwood can be seen as a substantial critic of the moral crisis of modern European civilization in terms of naturalism and scientism.