Taking its cue from Michel de Montaigne, this book asks what COVID-19 can teach us about the ‘art of living’.

It examines eight themes from a philosophical perspective, including attitudes to old age, populism and life under lockdown, arguing that the crisis presents opportunities to create a more just society and change our lives for the better.

French philosopher Michel de Montaigne (1533–92) said that facing our mortality is the only way to learn the ‘art of living’. He was right. This book is about what we can learn from COVID-19, as individuals but also collectively. It argues that this crisis could change our lives for the better, ushering in a more just society. Exploring eight themes through philosophical lenses, the book asks whether COVID-19 is a misfortune or an injustice, considers the largest cohort of victims (people in old age) and discusses whether life under lockdown is comparable to life in the so-called ‘state of nature’.

It explores the likely impact of the virus on the global phenomenon of populism and analyses the relationship between COVID-19 and post-truth. One chapter is dedicated to the role of arguably the most important players in the response to the pandemic: the experts. The book ends by considering the spike of reported cases of domestic violence during the lockdown via an analysis of the BB HardbackC adaptation of Sally Rooney’s novel Normal People.