Robin George Collingwood (1889-1943) - English philosopher, historian, art theorist (since 1935 - professor at Oxford University in the department of metaphysical philosophy). The range of the creative heritage of R. J. Collingwood is extremely wide and includes a variety of problems of history, philosophy, aesthetics, religious studies, politics. The book "Principles of Art" is marked by the undoubted influence of the aesthetics of J. Vico, as well as W. Croce, with whom Collingwood was on friendly terms, translated his works. However, Collingwood develops an original "theory of imagination" here, reinterpreting the doctrine of the ideas of classic English empiricism of Locke and Hume.