Today is the United Nations International Day of Happiness. It would be easy to miss this. With a global pandemic, much of the world shut down and many of us avoiding the outside world, concerned about our health, the health of others and whether our hospitals will cope, things are feeling a little bleak. But amid all the bad news there have been moments of delight. Last week videos started emerging of Italians in home isolation singing in harmony with their neighbours from their windows, social media posts have been appearing of baskets of toilet paper left outside houses for neighbours in need and supermarkets have created special shopping hours for the more vulnerable populations. So while some people are fighting over toilet paper, others are taking a more positive approach to finding happiness during the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to philosophy lecturer and ADI member, Associate Professor Matthew Sharpe, “Happiness for the ancient Greeks comes in fulfilling one’s potentials, and thereby living in accordance with nature.” This is exemplified by the Hellenistic philosophy of Stoisicm, “The Stoics believe that happiness comes through cultivating the virtues of treating others fairly, acting courageously to defend what is important, and responding moderately in response to temptations and challenges.” 

A/Prof Sharpe said that Stoicism has been experiencing a revival in recent years and a large Stoic online community has been growing since the Internet began, not least, he posits because the philosophy calls on us to distinguish between what we can change and what we cannot. “For the Stoics, happiness comes from changing what we can change, accepting with serenity what we cannot, and through treating other human beings well (independent of race, class, location), beginning with our closest relations – our parents, siblings, and kids.”

We can’t change the fact of COVID 19, but we can certainly change how we respond to it. “The many Stoic bloggers around the world have been appealing to their readers to not stockpile essential goods when others may need them, as well as reminding them that the course of the virus and even our government’s responses to it are not in our control.  What is in our control is how we respond as parents, colleagues, workers, and people who really are all in this together,” A/Prof Sharpe said.

While the current crisis has shown the best and worst of people, how we respond to the situation is really going to determine how bearable it is. “We are literally being asked to ‘socially distance’ ourselves, physically,” A/Prof Sharpe said, “But one thing ancient philosophers like the Stoics recognised was that happiness is not fully happiness if we do not share it.  We are social animals, from go to whoa.  And we are presently being reminded of how much of what we enjoy in life comes through what we owe to others.”  It is little wonder then that neighbours are singing together in Italy and doing exercises together in Spain, even as they are forced to stay in their houses separately.

While we do have to consider the health and economic impacts of COVID 19, we should also be thinking about our community, ourselves and how to stay positive during this time. “Francis Bacon once wrote that when grief is shared, it is halved, and when joy is shared, it is doubled.” A/Prof Sharpe reflected, “We are all going to need various kinds of assistance in the coming weeks, if not for happiness, then for comfort and diversion.  Putting ‘number 1 first’, tears at the invisible threads that tie people together.  And these are already being strained in ways most of us couldn’t have imagined even several weeks ago.”

Matthew Sharpe is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Deakin University with an eclectic array of research interests. Increasingly, he works on classical philosophy and modern receptions thereof, and the early modern period, up to and including the French enlightenment. He is interested in the history of Western receptions of its classical past, and the rich ethical legacy left by Stoic and academic schools in particular.