本文探討英國哲學家柯靈烏的政治思想，而主要的焦點集中在其最後之著作《新利維坦》一書上。在本書中柯靈烏論述了他對人類社會化過程的看法：一個人如何從自然人轉變為社會人（公民）。而本書最後之高潮則在於他大力地攻擊了德國政治思想中所存在的『對群體的崇拜』之情結，他認為如此之現象終將導致『反文明』，也就是一種『野蠻主義』。在這樣的指摘中，其實存在著英國自由主義與德國政治思想間的一個對比。 英國唯心論受德國唯心論影響很深，而在史學研究上柯靈烏又傳襲德國歷史主義之重要治學信念，但他對於人類歷史與政治發展的評斷卻與他的日耳曼前輩大相逕庭。與他思想源流相似的區克夏（Michael Oakeshott），以及巴粕（Karl Popper），都不約而同地戮力攻擊『對群體的崇拜』。何以如此？是否研究歷史之眼光今昔不同？抑或有可能為民族文化之不同使然－也就是說，英國人跟德國人基本上是不同的？換句話說，出版於一九四二年的《新利維坦》之成因是時代思潮因素，還是地域民族因素？這是本文所欲探究之處。

　　　　　This intends to be a preliminary study of R.G. Collingwood's political thought, as is mainly expressed in the New Leviathan, written and published in the last days of the English historian's life. Following Hobbes, Cllingwood hoped to look into how the natural man comes into the social man, a process on which the development of civilization is absolutely dependent. In the final parts of the New Leviathan, Collingwood launches severe attacks on German political thought since the early modern period. Hegel is among the representative figures on whom the charge of promulgating "herd-worship" of the German people is placed. The standards for Collingwood's politics come from the classical liberal theory, which is English indeed, and this raises the question of how modernity could be articulated in different socio-political forms of the European culture. This passage tentatively concludes itself with a suggestion that, among other factors, philosophy of history many have been the key element in shaping the politics of a nation.