Clemente Huneeus

by Rodrigo Ballon Villanueva

Clemente Huneeus

October 2024 – Continuing with our Latin American tour, we are happy to introduce you to Clemente Huneeus from Chile this month. Clemente holds a BA in Law (2016) and Philosophy (2018), awarded by the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile. He then moved to the University of the Andes (Chile), where he got his MA in Philosophy (2021) and is currently enrolled in their PhD programme.

Clemente’s research interests lie mainly at the intersection of medieval philosophy and analytic philosophy of religion. His first contact with this area dates back to his undergraduate studies when he became acquainted with Antony Flew’s interpretation of classical arguments for the existence of God. Clemente’s BA dissertation focused on the foundation and recent critiques of the doctrine of divine simplicity. For his MA dissertation, thanks to special funding from the John Templeton Foundation, Clemente analysed the semantic and hermeneutic functions of Thomistic natural theology, suggesting we can think of ‘God’ as a theoretical term. Currently, his PhD thesis deals with the role of the principle of causal resemblance in accounts of divine perfection.

Clemente has taught general courses on Law and Ethics and, recently, more specialised seminars in Ancient and Modern Philosophy (with a particular focus on topics related to the philosophy of religion). This semester, he has also been invited to give lectures on the history of religions, which has allowed him to broaden his knowledge and acquaintance with non-western philosophy.

Some of Clemente’s publications include: ‘The Functions of Natural Theology in Thomas Aquinas: A Presumption of Atheism?’ (Religious Studies, 2023), ‘Triplex Via and the ‘Gap Problem’ with Cosmological Arguments’ (New Blackfriars, 2022), ‘Ética y filosofía especulativa en el comentario de Tomás de Aquino al libro I de la Ética a Nicómaco’ (Scripta Mediaevalia, 2024), etc.

In his free time, Clemente enjoys recording episodes for his podcast ‘La Catequesis del Nefrón’, available on several platforms. You can keep up to date with Clemente’s research here.