13 June, Marija Selak "Contemporary Manifestations of Evil and Attempts at Their Justification&

On 13 June Marija Selak (University of Zagreb) gave a special lecture, on the topic "Man on trial: Contemporary Manifestations of Evil and Attempts at Their Justification". This lecture will present research undertaken by Dr Selak during her 2018 visiting position at the University of Oxford.

Abstract: In this lecture I point out the “unwanted fruit” of the de-substantialisation of evil. Incorporating evil within good itself has enabled its undisturbed dissemination, resulting in the blurring of the difference between good and evil, and thus the de-substantialisation of good. Hence, in the first part of the lecture I will analyse Manichaeistic cosmological dualism, with an emphasis on Augustine’s counter arguments and their philosophical foundations found in Parmenides, Plato, and Plotinus. Following this, in the second part of the lecture, I examine how the perception of evil as a lack of good may have led us astray. In this regard, I will discuss the decomposition of the modern subject as the bearer of moral responsibility, the infantilisation of society, and the establishment of new invisible authorities in its place. Finally, on these foundations, I will critically discuss evil in the present-day, with an emphasis on virtual reality, in which we have a return of the cosmic dualism of good and evil, and the displacement of man beyond morality.