Ilaria Gaspari: “And if we took advantage of this moment to reactivate the Greek idea of ​​happiness? »

Italian philosopher and novelist, Ilaria Gaspari has published Lessons of Happiness (PUF, 2020), a suite of exercises in applied philosophy that relates how the precepts of ancient schools of wisdom can help us overcome the ruptures and wounds of life. She explains today to Le Monde how these thoughts allow us to apprehend the torments and impulses of an existence disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Like other countries, France is lifting some of the restrictions linked to the health crisis. How to apprehend this joy and these rediscovered happiness, which remain despite everything very conditioned?

As Socrates says in the Phaedo, pleasure also arises from the cessation of pain. In other words, nothing is more pleasant than relief… And I believe that it will be precisely a moment of appeasement that we have long awaited. Those things we used to consider almost mundane, having a drink on the terrace, getting a smile, listening to neighboring conversations, going out with our friends, going to eat at a bistro, living next to each other… After this endless interruption, they will come back like new. And I have to admit, I can't wait to live this moment.

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Is there a philosophical attitude that could prepare us for this sudden "surplus" of pleasures?

Sure ! All ancient philosophy, in a certain sense, is an education in moderation, a principle we have lost sight of, but which may well help us now. What I will try to do every morning is to probe what my needs are according to Epicure's prescription: ask myself for each of my awakened desires to which category it belongs. If it is a necessity, a natural or even imperious need or, on the contrary, if I do not run the risk of undergoing it - of becoming a "slave" to this new pleasure and thus developing an addiction . I already know that it won't be easy, but this moment, this coming event, seems to me to be a good opportunity to put myself to the test and lend myself to a new spiritual exercise.

Why did you seek out the means of surviving despair from the Greek thinkers of Antiquity?

After a painful breakup, I decided to go to the school of the Greek philosophers, following their sometimes mysterious rules of conduct. After studying the doctrine of six different ancient schools as well as the lives of the masters, I tried to follow their precepts for six weeks: I was successively Pythagorean, Eleatic, skeptical, Stoic, Epicurean and finally cynical. My ambition was to lose the automatisms and daily habits in order to reorient myself and change the idea that I had of life.

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