Frankl and James on the meaning of life
The question of what makes life meaningful is probably one of the hardest questions to answer. Everyone has a different answer depending on their beliefs and their opinions on life. Some might even say that life has no meaning at all, and that we are only here because it is the course of nature. However, I think that life is evidently meaningful for if it was not meaningful, we would not deal with the question of its meaningfulness. We would not see the need in defining life and simply continue living the way we do until we die.
For those who seek to find the meaning of life, Frankl offers an answer. In the chapter The Case for a Tragic Optimism from his book Man’s Search for Meaning, Frankl talks about how we can remain positive, despite devastating experiences. One of his arguments is that the same way “life remains potentially meaningful under any conditions […] so does the value of […] every person stay within [them]” (Frankl 151). How I understand this sentence is that every life is valuable, and this value cannot be taken away from any person. I think that remembering this could help people to have a positive outlook on life, regardless of their experiences and to realize that no matter what happens, their live will always be worth living.
Another psychologist that argued for the significance of life is William James. In one of his lectures, James argued that life is full of meaning “which we fail to realize because of our external and insensible point of view” (James 320). By this he means that differences in humans would concern only the surface level while every life itself shares a “common inner meaning” (James 327). I agree with this standpoint as I think that we often try to attach the value of our lives to external goods and achievements when the significance of our lives lies within us, and no one can take or should take that away from us.
All in all, both authors argue that the meaning of life can be found within, and it is an integral part of us. This is just one standpoint to the question of life’s meaning and there are many more opinions on this topic that one may find more fitting to their beliefs.
