本文分析柯靈烏「歷史即思想史」的著名命題，主張對柯靈烏而言，了解歷史即是去重演歷史行動者的思想——也就是行動者藉以決定其行動的有效的實踐推理。這使得某些一般而言被視為是歷史敘事的對象的事態被排除在歷史理解的界域之外。

Collingwood’s famous statement that all history is the history of thought is analyzed in this paper. It is argued that, for Collingwood, to understand history is to re-enact the historical agent’s thought; that is, the valid practical reasoning through which the agent determines his actions. As a consequence, some states of affairs that are generally regarded as objects of the historical narrative are thereby excluded from the horizon of historical understanding.