What is harmony?

The concept of harmony is a tricky one, which is often the case with overused notions. Everyone seems to be talking about “harmony” in this or that dimension. Moreover, no one ever seeks less harmony in their lives, right? Harmony is in the same boat with Dichotomy of Control. No one actively advises us to be bothered by the things we don’t control and no one pursues disharmony. On some level we all seem to agree: harmony is preferred to the lack of it (just as focus on what we can control is preferred to its opposite). The true question persists though: what does it in fact mean?

I have covered Dichotomy of Control at length already, so today I’ll concentrate on harmony. What does it mean in Stoicism? More importantly, what should it mean to us today?

Harmony as inner peace

I bet that most times today we mean some form of harmony with oneself. Harmony in this view is tantamount to inner peace, or maybe the quest for it. More precisely: it’s a platform to find one’s inner peace. This is, by the way, what you frequently get on social media: people boasting stories on how they – allegedly! – found their harmony and/or inner peace.

Harmony as “finding the true self”

On a different take, harmony might be about “finding the true self.” And this is again a conversation we are quite familiar with today. Not an unreasonable take too! One needs to align one’s actual (“empirical”) self with the “true self,” whatever the latter means, and such alignment is termed “harmony.” Makes sense at first blush.

Once we dig deeper, we unearth problems though. “True self” may garner likes on Instagram, but it’s hard to define and actually grasp. Assuming the existence of one’s true self is really quite a heavy essentialist proposition. After all, how do we know it even exists? How do we discern between it and some delusions? And finally, how do we know we are going to like it?

There may be a twist here. As I mentioned, we mostly consider harmony and “true self” to be positive values. But can we be disappointed with it? There once was a great comic strip about that. A young and adventurous Tom travelled to Tibet to find his “true self” and he came across a boring, buttoned-up, grown-up Tom working a 9-5 job. It can be tricky indeed! We must be careful what we want to find harmony with.

The problem is repeated in the grand scale. “Harmony” may refer to the universe itself – now we are talking about the pursuit to find some form of alignment between ourselves and the universe. This was, give or take, the traditional Stoic idea. We need to get a grasp on the nature of the universe, we need get ourselves in tune with it, and thus find our solace and peace. Sounds good but opens up similar problems: how do we seek that “harmony of the universe”? How do we know it really exists, particularly in the light of modern physics? Is this “harmony” a scientific concept, or a metaphysical one? And are we really sure it is worth aligning with? A historian and a biologist in us are eager to raise the last doubt. After all the atrocities of history, with all we know about the ruthlessness of evolutionary life, do we still believe in the harmony of the universe? Those killed in the Holocaust and those who perished in the timeless brutality of the survival of the fittest may beg to differ.

Harmony as consistency and coherence 

The point I’m making here is that “harmony,” taken as such, is problematic. Does it mean however that we ought to abandon it? Not entirely! Even if we have our doubts about the harmonious structure of the universe, even if we are not really sure if our “true self” is a solid being, we may still employ and exert harmony in our life. We may create it ourselves, we may live by it and abide by it. Instead of a great harmony of the universe, or even the elusive harmony of our inner self, we may want the harmony that is within our power to pursue (pitching back to the Dichotomy of Control here). Within our power are our values and beliefs, the way we strive to do things, and how we react to outside events. Putting all this in order, calibrating it, making it consistent, isn’t it all a viable harmony we may work to achieve? Consistency with ourselves, instead of alignment with some outside order of things.  Coherence in our actions and thoughts, self-discipline in what we pursue and how. These are within our power to seek – and aren’t they a harmony on their own?  

Dr. Piotr Stankiewicz, Ph.D., is a writer and philosopher, and promoter of reformed Stoicism. He authored Manual of Reformed Stoicism, and Does Happiness Write Blank Pages?

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