Viktor Frankl Man's Search For Meaning

Hessman
What is the meaning of life? This is a common question that people ask themselves every day. Viktor Frankl, the author of Man’s Search for Meaning, examines the meaning of human existence during his time in concentration camps. Frankl miraculously survived to write his memoir of how he found the strength to live. Comparatively, Socrates is a great philosopher who wrote the philosophical dialogue Meno. This dialogue analyzes the form of virtue. I shall address why the search for meaning is the primary motivation in one’s life and how the search for meaning pertains to Socrates philosophical dialogue Meno. In this essay, we will first examine how Frankl found meaning in his life, then we will study how achieving significance satisfies our will to meaning, finally we will look at how the search for meaning relates to Meno.
To begin, I will be explaining how Frankl found meaning in his life despite the harsh conditions of the concentration camps. Frankl says, “Life is not primarily a quest for pleasure,

Frankl states, “Man’s search for meaning is the primary motivation in his life … This meaning is unique and specific in that it must be fulfilled by him alone; only then does it achieve a significance which will satisfy his own will to meaning” (99). This meaning has to have personal significance. Often, we find meaning in our ideals and values since we can control our world inside of us. You cannot control what happens in your life, but you can control how you respond to the situations you are in. Meaning is unique and specific to the individual because it differs from person to person and from moment to moment. Frankl explains, “…everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way” (Frankl, 66). We must be motivated to search for a purpose both mentally and