Člověk, dobro a zlo

One of the first books published by Czech philosopher Erazim Kohák after his return from exile. In fourteen lectures, he comments on the problems faced by people in their period of time and addressed by thinkers from the ‘beginning of humanity’ to our present day. The author referred to the book as ‘scripts’, which meant not only that they were based on university lectures, but primarily that they were not dogma, a final conclusion of thought. In the author’s own words, they capture just one moment in humankind’s continuing, never-ending struggle with the multiplicity of human possibilities. He presents his 1992 thesis (first published in 1993) as a matter for debate rather than as something to be defended.
‘These lectures represent a kind of attempt at cultural self-examination in the mirror of history at a time of radical questioning of our commonplaces. Although they deal with history, they are not about history itself, but rather offer a view of the problems and possibilities of human existence for us, the heirs and bearers of European civilisation.’