“The meaning of life differs from man to man, from day to day and from hour to hour. What matters, therefore, is not the meaning of life in general but rather the specific meaning of a person's life at a given moment.”
—
Viktor Frankl
Man's Search for Meaning (1946), Part 2 (On Logotherapy)
Commentary
Frankl rejects abstract, universal notions of life's meaning (God's purpose, biological function, social role). Instead, he insists on existential particularity: meaning is lived, not contemplated; it emerges in specific situations and relationships.
This prefigures phenomenological and existential psychology. Each person must discover their 'specific meaning' through engagement, not through ideology or theory. This is why Frankl's approach is neither nihilistic (meaning is absent) nor dogmatic (meaning is fixed by religion or custom), but existentially responsive.
Commentary
Frankl rejects abstract, universal notions of life's meaning (God's purpose, biological function, social role). Instead, he insists on existential particularity: meaning is lived, not contemplated; it emerges in specific situations and relationships.
This prefigures phenomenological and existential psychology. Each person must discover their 'specific meaning' through engagement, not through ideology or theory. This is why Frankl's approach is neither nihilistic (meaning is absent) nor dogmatic (meaning is fixed by religion or custom), but existentially responsive.