James Kent
Biographic Data
| ID | 3832902 |
|---|---|
| NAME | James Kent |
| GIVEN NAMES | James |
| FAMILY NAME | Kent |
| SIGNATURE | KENT J |
| AFFILIATIONS | Monash University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-9220-2675 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 7 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 0 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 7 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1975 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 0 |
A semblance of freedom
In this paper I argue that the pessimistic reading of Horkheimer and Adorno’s Dialectic of Enlightenment , which suggests reason is ensconced within the domination of myth, misses a key component of the authors' argument. Specifically, it misses the possibility that the liberation from the heteronomy of myth might occur via a critique of myth. Using Owen Hulatt’s reinterpretation of Adorno’s account of the tension between mimesis and self-preserv…
Simone Weil on "Force" and the Possibilities of Human Freedom
In this article we argue that Simone Weil offers an account of human freedom that—if and when it emerges—emerges from the human being’s recognition of, and appropriate response to, the impossibility of eliminating “force.” While other commentators have noted that for Weil, our freedom derives from consenting spontaneously to that which necessity obligates, we go further by showing the ways in which our responses to force are historically inscribe…
Hans Blumenberg on the rigorism of truth and the strangeness of the past
In this paper I discuss Hans Blumenberg's The Rigorism of Truth, a short polemic that criticizes Freud and Hannah Arendt for placing (what he considers) a misplaced faith in the liberatory potential of rational truth in moments of historical disaster. The secondary literature suggests that this piece exhibits either all the signs of a late, Romantic capitulation to the 'need' for myth, or Blumenberg's failure to recognize his own faith and debts …
Vico, Collingwood, and the Materiality of the Past
The project of this paper is a reconstruction of the philosophy of Giambattista Vico via its confrontation with that of R. G. Collingwood. The aims are twofold: the first part seeks to rescue Vico’s peculiar form of what I call philosophical ‘materiality’ from the later idealist universal histories that would subsume him, while the second explores Vico’s idea of divine providence, particularly his differentiation between it and fate. Materiality …
The Present's Historical Task
Siegfried Kracauer's reading of the work of R.G. Collingwood illuminates the crisis point in the relation between philosophy, history and how the present is thought. In this paper I argue that Kracauer's dismissal of Collingwood illuminates a misunderstanding of the latter's philosophical project, and takes no account of a certain affinity between the two thinkers. Collingwood not only shared Kracauer's view that a philosophically oriented histor…
Understanding the etiology of child abuse
The Socinian Tradition
No prominent works on this page.
The Socinian Tradition
Understanding the etiology of child abuse
Vico, Collingwood, and the Materiality of the Past
The project of this paper is a reconstruction of the philosophy of Giambattista Vico via its confrontation with that of R. G. Collingwood. The aims are twofold: the first part seeks to rescue Vico’s peculiar form of what I call philosophical ‘materiality’ from the later idealist universal histories that would subsume him, while the second explores Vico’s idea of divine providence, particularly his differentiation between it and fate. Materiality …
The Present's Historical Task
Siegfried Kracauer's reading of the work of R.G. Collingwood illuminates the crisis point in the relation between philosophy, history and how the present is thought. In this paper I argue that Kracauer's dismissal of Collingwood illuminates a misunderstanding of the latter's philosophical project, and takes no account of a certain affinity between the two thinkers. Collingwood not only shared Kracauer's view that a philosophically oriented histor…
Hans Blumenberg on the rigorism of truth and the strangeness of the past
In this paper I discuss Hans Blumenberg's The Rigorism of Truth, a short polemic that criticizes Freud and Hannah Arendt for placing (what he considers) a misplaced faith in the liberatory potential of rational truth in moments of historical disaster. The secondary literature suggests that this piece exhibits either all the signs of a late, Romantic capitulation to the 'need' for myth, or Blumenberg's failure to recognize his own faith and debts …
Simone Weil on "Force" and the Possibilities of Human Freedom
In this article we argue that Simone Weil offers an account of human freedom that—if and when it emerges—emerges from the human being’s recognition of, and appropriate response to, the impossibility of eliminating “force.” While other commentators have noted that for Weil, our freedom derives from consenting spontaneously to that which necessity obligates, we go further by showing the ways in which our responses to force are historically inscribe…
A semblance of freedom
In this paper I argue that the pessimistic reading of Horkheimer and Adorno’s Dialectic of Enlightenment , which suggests reason is ensconced within the domination of myth, misses a key component of the authors' argument. Specifically, it misses the possibility that the liberation from the heteronomy of myth might occur via a critique of myth. Using Owen Hulatt’s reinterpretation of Adorno’s account of the tension between mimesis and self-preserv…
Epistemology (5 works) · Philosophy (5 works) · Philosophy (4 works) · Aesthetics (2 works) · Computer Science (2 works) · Law (2 works) · Law (2 works) · Linguistics (2 works) · Mythology (2 works) · Philosophy, History, and Historiography (2 works)