UFH Colloquium Update: In-person venue added.

[Werner F. Smith]

The Fort Hare Politics and Philosophy Department, together with The Centre for Leadership Ethics in Africa, invites you to the next instalment of our 2026 colloquium series with Yoliswa Mlungwana (UFH).

Title: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me…”: From Leibniz to Levinas: The Problem of Evil and the End of Theodicy

Abstract:

Leibniz’s essay on theodicy formulates a defence of theodicy. He attempts to defend how we might reconcile our claims or beliefs about God – that he is omnipotent and supremely benevolent – with the fact that evil and suffering exist. That is, at the heart of Leibniz’s approach to theodicy is making sense of (the problem of) evil in relation to humanity’s freedom and God’s infinite goodness and wisdom. In this talk, I attempt to show, in light of existentialist philosopher Emmanuel Levinas, why theodicy becomes an inadequate conviction when we consider the failure of morality during the unprecedented and horrific evils that occurred in the 20th century (and throughout human history). I argue that Levinas gives us plausible critique of theodicy that renders theodicies and theodical thinking revived by Leibniz unsatisfying.

Bio:

Yoliswa Mlungwana is a lecturer at the Department of Politics and Philosophy at the University of Fort Hare. She is also a PhD Candidate at the University of Johannesburg. Her research interests include 19th and 20th Century Continental Philosophy, Phenomenology, Identity theory and Existentialism, Psychoanalysis, as well as African Feminism. Her current research focuses on Identity theory, (Kantian) Ethics and Political Philosophy (particularly looking at Hannah Arendt). She has also published an article in the South African Journal of Philosophy titled ‘An African Response to Absurdism’.

 

DATE: 10 March 2026

TIME: 13:00 – 14:00 SAST

VENUE: UFH Library Training Room (1st Floor)

LINK (Hybrid): https://teams.microsoft.com/meet/33592965518181?p=XxJcU4MdYiL7mLNXGF

All the best 

Werner F. Smith 

Politics and Philosophy Department 

University of Fort Hare