William Herbert Dray (23 June 1921, in

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

– 6 August 2009, in

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

) was a Canadian

philosopher of history Philosophy of history is the philosophical study of history and its discipline. The term was coined by the French philosopher Voltaire. In contemporary philosophy a distinction has developed between the ''speculative'' philosophy of history and ...

. He was Professor Emeritus at the

University of Ottawa The University of Ottawa (), often referred to as uOttawa or U of O, is a Official bilingualism in Canada, bilingual public research university in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on directly to the northeast of Downtown Ot ...

. He is known for his version of anti- positivist ''

Verstehen ''Verstehen'' (, ), in the context of German philosophy and social sciences in general, has been used since the late 19th century – in English as in German – with the particular sense of the "interpretive or participatory" examination of socia ...

'' in history, in ''Laws and Explanation in History'',Michael Martin, ''Verstehen: The Uses of Understanding in the Social Sciences'' (2000), p. 103. and his work on

R. G. Collingwood Robin George Collingwood (; 22 February 1889 – 9 January 1943) was an English philosopher, historian and archaeologist. He is best known for his philosophical works, including ''The Principles of Art'' (1938) and the posthumously published ' ...

Selected publications

* Dray, William H. ''Laws and explanation in history''. Oxford University Press, 1957. *Dray, William H. ''Philosophy of history''. Prentice-Hall 1964. *Dray, William H. ''Holism and individualism in history and social science''. 1967. *Dray, William H. 'On the nature and role of narrative in historiography', in ''History and theory'' 10.2 (1971): 153–171. *Dray, William H. ''On history and philosophers of history'', vol. 2 of ''Philosophy of History and Culture'', ed. by Krausz, Michael. Brill, 1989. *Dray, William H. ''History as re-enactment: RG Collingwood's idea of history''. Clarendon Press, 1996.

Notes

References

''Canadian Encyclopedia'' page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dray, William Herbert 1921 births 2009 deaths 20th-century Canadian philosophers Analytic philosophers 21st-century Canadian philosophers Philosophers of history Alumni of the University of Oxford Canadian expatriates in the United Kingdom University of Toronto alumni