If metaphysics is understood as the comprehensive study of all the fields of human activities, then R. G. Collingwood was — until now — the last metaphysician to occupy the chair of Metaphysics in modern English philosophical life. The fact that he has been succeeded in the chair of Metaphysics by Gilbert Ryle has its parallel, more dramatic in terms of political beliefs but less dramatic in the very meaning of the subject-matter, in M. Oakeshott's succeeding Harold Laski in the chair of Political Science.