Jerónimo Ayesta
Jerónimo Ayesta
Contact
Stokes Hall North 230H
Email: ayestalo@bc.edu
Education
- B.A., University of Navarra
- B.A., University of Navarra (Journalism)
- M.A., King's College, London (Film Studies)
Courses
Philosophy of the Peron I
Philosophy of the Person II
Research Interests
Twentieth-Century European Philosophy
Hermeneutics
Phenomenology
Aesthetics
Ethics
Film-Philosophy
Philosophy of Religion
Office hours
By appointment
Department
Biography
Jeronimo Ayesta is a Ph.D. candidate and Teaching Fellow in the Philosophy Department at Boston College. His research explores the role of aesthetic experience and narrative in the constitution of selfhood and the cultivation of moral character. His dissertation, "The Relation between Ethics and Aesthetics in Hans-Georg Gadamer and Paul Ricœur," draws on two of the most important figures in the hermeneutical tradition to reframe the classical question of the relationship between the beautiful and the good in a hermeneutic key. Beyond the dissertation, his current projects include a study of Augustine's account of attention to the self; an inquiry into Gadamer's concept of Darstellung and its underexplored connection to the philosophical aesthetics of Gaudí's architecture; and an essay on the claim, shared by both Gadamer and Ricœur, that hermeneutics must absorb aesthetics. Running through all of these is an interest in film hermeneutics—particularly in the philosophical significance of the face in the cinema of Terrence Malick—with film serving as a privileged site through which the broader questions of selfhood and moral character come into focus.
He holds an M.A. in Film Studies with First-Class Honors from King's College London and dual undergraduate degrees in Philosophy and Journalism from the University of Navarra. Outside the academy, he trains for marathons and half-marathons, skis in winter, hikes year-round, and is a devoted cinephile.
PUBLICATIONS
Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles
"The 'Therapy of Desire' in Kierkegaard's Discourse on Lk 22:15." Sophia 63, no. 2 (June 2024): 329–43.
Book Chapters
"Recognising Human Religiousness in Filmic Representations of Martyrdom: A Close-reading of Terrence Malick's A Hidden Life through the Kantian Sublime." In Metaverso: lo real en lo virtual, edited by Victoria Hernandez Ruiz. Madrid: Editorial Sindéresis, 2022, pp. 195–216.
"Love, Light and Guilt: Metaphors in Julian Ayesta." In La escritura y su órbita, edited by A. Abello, D. Arciello and S. Fernandez. Leon: Área de Publicaciones de la Universidad de León, 2018, pp. 101–113. [In Spanish]