This question has pulled to itself an outstanding measure of attention in philosophical studies and philosophers of different epochs have approached it from various ways, both as it pertains to man per se and as it pertains generally to life in the universe. The existentialists handled this question as one of the foundational stones of the structure of their inquiry. According to this understanding, the focus of philosophical thought should be, “not to deal with the purpose of life in the universe for it is meaningless to ask about the meaning of life in the universe but to deal with the meaning of life as it pertains to man. 1 Noteworthy, is the fact that even before the emergence of the epoch of the existentialist philosophers people of different epochs had dived into the inquiry of the meaning of life. One among others is the essentialist school for instance; this group regards the meaning of life to be “determined through perfection of the intellect which is the essence of human nature. ”2 As such, their approach views man in general, that is, man as a universal notion.
But the view of the existentialists themselves is based on the idea that “it is only personal choices and commitments that can give any meaning to life since, for an individual, life can only be his or her life, and not an abstractly given entity. ”3 Thus the existentialist view is that the focus of philosophical thought should be to deal with man as an individual thereby approaching the question of the meaning of life “by exploring where and how an individual finds meaning in life as well as what gives meaning to his life. 4 This existentialist approach is what sets the pace for this research work. Viktor Frankl, an existentialist philosopher and psychologist whose concept of ‘meaning of life’ I am to explore in this research work also emphasized the fact that “it is not the meaning of life in general but rather the specific meaning of a person’s life at a given moment. ”5 His concept of the meaning of life serves as one of the philosophical foundations of his system which he termed ‘Logotherapy’ a term he coined from the Greek word ‘logos’ which he translates as ‘meaning’.
The Essay on My Philosophical Approach To Counseling
My Philosophical Approach to Counseling Definition of Existential Therapy One survey taken by Corey suggests a definition of Existential Therapy include two key elements: Existential Therapy is essentially an approach to counseling and therapy rather than a firm theoretical model, it stresses core human conditions. Normally, personality development is based on the uniqueness of each individual. ...
I shall also explore the meaning, aims and tenets of this system because it is a system that focuses on man’s search for meaning in life. In his concept of meaning of life, he emphasized the idea that at the face of whatever ill condition man finds himself he still posses that inner freedom to choose his attitudinal response to the condition, thus creating meaning out of a life that could be pessimistically viewed as meaningless. These shall be treated in details in the course of this research. . 2STATEMENT OF PROBLEM No life is without meaning. If it does seem so, then the owner of that life has hidden its meaning. A critical examination of the Nigerian terrible living conditions immediately exposes what the average Nigerian man’s life consist of, which will definitely not exclude pain and suffering. Most Nigerians live in acute poverty and political injustices with practically no hope for a better Nigeria, at least in the near future. Where then does meaning exist in such lives?
The further mental problem here is to provide the key which the suffering Nigerian masses need for the realization of the meaning of their lives. In the course of this research work I intend to philosophically expose the thoughts of the existentialist philosopher viktor frankl more extensively, in an attempt to provide a solution to the above stated problem. To this problem, Frankl at one point said “suffering ceases to be suffering at the moment it finds a meaning”6 1. 3PURPOSE OF STUDY
Life is exceptionally the principal gift of existence. Therefore its importance can never be measured . The purpose for which I am setting out on this research work in an attempt to provide meaning for the lives of the suffering Nigerian masses is principally to offer hope to those hopeless Nigerians, who pessimistically view their lives as meaningless. As such this research will expose the need or importance of meaning in life through an exposition of Frankl’s concept of ‘meaning of life’.
The Essay on Life Os Freud Work One Years
Sigmund Freud is a name that to most of us sounds familiar. To many, he is known as the father of Psychology. He was one of the most influential figures in the twentieth century (B: 430). His theories revolutionized the world, and he founded his own school of Psychology. Although some regarded his work with hostility and disbelieve, many people still follows his believes and teachings until this ...
Secondly, in view of the fact that in Frankl’s ideology, the way in which man accepts his fate and all the suffering it entails and the way in which he takes up his cross gives him ample opportunity even under the most difficult circumstances to add a deeper meaning to his life. I am also embarking on this research work considering the painful situation of most Nigerians due to the economic and socio-political injustice inherent in the nation. I am of the view that in such unfavorable conditions in which the Nigerian man finds himself, he is offered by it the opportunity to attain the moral values a difficult situation may afford him.
Thus this research work will also aim at stressing the spiritual freedom, of independence of mind, which man can preserve even in such terrible conditions of psychic and physical stress. 1. 4SCOPE OF STUDY The hunt for meaning in life is a philosophical problem that has been on the doors of philosophy and of philosophers since the ancient epochs. It has also been given a personalized interpretation and approach by the existentialists. However, this work will limit itself to Viktor Frankl’s concept of the ‘meaning of life’ which among other things explains how one can find meaning in life through his or her attitude towards life conditions.
Though one could apply the results of this research work on whatever ill condition of any man anywhere in the globe, but here I intend to limit the scope of my research work to the suffering Nigerian masses, For the sake of clarity. 1. 5DIVISION OF WORK This research work is divided into five chapters. Chapter one bears the introductory part of the work. Here there will be a resume of the motivations and aims of this work as well as the general framework of the research. The second chapter will review some philosophers’ insights on the central theme of ‘meaning of life’, (either explicitly or implicitly).
Being human research paper
My topic is how being human changed the bad boy image of Salman Khan . I would like to thank my guide Miss Tanya Sarkar for her unending support and guidance that made it possible for me to start working on a research project as this and be able to complete it. Here I would like to thank my friends helping me throughout. I would also like to thank all the references that I used because without ...
Chapter three will occupy itself with an exposition of the views of Viktor Frankl on the topic which he is generally known for. Chapter four will aim at a discussion on how man is able to find meaning even under the most terrible conditions of his life. Being more specific here the Nigerian condition would be presented as a case study. Chapter five bears the authors evaluation and conclusion. 1. 6METHODOLOGY The method of this work shall be expository, descriptive and analytical.
There would be an exposition of Viktor Frankl’s idea of meaning in life, a description of the economic cum socio-political suffering of most Nigerians and how the Nigerian man could borrow from the existential analysis of viktor frankl if he seeks to give meaning to his life. There will also be an analysis of the need for applying Dr. Frankl’s doctrine in the individual lives of suffering Nigerians. REFERENCES 1. J. Baggini, What’s It All About? Philosophy and The Meaning of Life, (London: Granta Books, 2004), p 19. 2. Ibid. 3. Ibid. 4. Ibid. 5. V. Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning, (New York: Washington Square Press,1985), p. 130. 6.
B. Andah, Cited in R. Asagba, Logotherapy and Cultural Development, (Ibadan: Spectrum Books Ltd. ,2006), p. 6. CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW The sense of meaning has been with us for as long as the human person has been self-conscious and the concept ‘meaning of life’ has been the subject of human attention since history began. In the philosophical realm, it has appeared in various forms, either as affirmation or denial. One could tentatively claim or assume that the whole project of philosophy and the love of wisdom as it appears in the various philosophical periods are truly the manifestations of the human beings’ search for meaning.
One could also safely say that man is in search of wisdom as a means to make sense of the human life on earth. As such the search for the ‘meaning of life’ can be dated back to the ancient period of philosophy, when the Ionian philosophers such as Thales, Parmenides, Heraclitus and others were engrossed in the search for the ultimate reality and the stuff that constitutes life. Throughout the various epochs of philosophy, various philosophers have shared their thoughts on this concept, and in order to sufficiently discuss this topic, there is need to review these varied thoughts.
The Essay on Meaning to Human Life
Is there any meaning to human life? After listening to the first two lectures I gathered what I felt to be Professor Amrbosio’s definitions of the hero and the saint. I took notes and after going back through and reading them it helped me to put a few things together. He asks the question about whether or not human existence is meaningful or absurd. We live in a hostile and deadly environment so ...
This I shall do by grouping them under two general philosophical views; essentialism and existentialism because they are reflected in most of these thoughts. However, before doing so, I deem it fit to clarify the concept ‘meaning’ as is used in this research work. The concept ‘meaning of life’ has many connotations. A proper understanding of this concept will be facilitated when we clarify what ‘meaning’ is or what we mean by ‘meaning’ when we say ‘the meaning of life’. In other words, what do we understand by this meaning, which we affirm or deny that it is in life, or in the entire universe?
In the first place, it is not intended here, to be as when we ask the meaning of words or phrases which are aimed at determining what these words or phrases are used to communicate. It is otherwise seen or defined as “the cognizance of order, coherence and purpose in ones existence. ”1 For Irvin Yalom, meaning refers to sense or coherence in life. He distinguished between ‘cosmic meaning’ and ‘terrestrial meaning’. The former refers to the meaning of life in general, that is, “an inquiry as to whether life in general and specifically human life fits into some overall coherent pattern. 2 The latter, which is a coinage from some philosophers refers to “the meaning of one’s personal and individual life; it ‘embraces purpose or function to be fulfilled, some overriding goal or goals to which to apply oneself. ” 3 In this research work, this concept ‘meaning’ is used in the terrestrial sense for it concerns certain purposes which are to be fulfilled in life by human beings. Having explored the sense in which the word ‘meaning’ is used in this research work, I shall go further to explore the views of different philosophers on the ‘meaning of life’.
The views of the essentialist philosophers are predominantly represented from the ancient to the modern period of philosophy. Essentialist views “generally start with the assumption that there is a common essence in human beings; human nature. ”4 For them, this is the starting point for any evaluation of the meaning of human life. The essence of human nature consists in “… the fact of rationality (italics mine) and conforming to this inborn quality is seen as the aim of life. ”5 Traces of this essentialist quality of rationality are noted even in the ancient philosophical period.
The Essay on Thomas Cole Life Paintings and Views
Thomas Cole: Life, Paintings, and Views Landscape painting was an extremely important time during the middle of the nineteenth century. One of the leading practitioners of landscape painters in America was Thomas Cole. He went to many places seeking the natural world in which he used direct observation to show his audience the untainted nature by man. His works helped to find goodness in American ...
Plato was one of the earliest and most influential proponents of this view. In his dialogue, The Republic, He describes the Form of ‘the Good’ speaking through the character of Socrates; “The Idea of the Good is the child or offspring (ekgonos) of the Good, the ideal or perfect nature of goodness, and so an absolute measure of justice. ”6 For Plato the meaning of life lies in attaining the highest form of knowledge, which is the Idea (or Form) of the Good. It is from this that all things that are good and just gain their usefulness and value.
Humans have a duty to pursue the good, but no one can hope to do this successfully without philosophical reasoning. Thus he proposed rationality as the essence from which the meaning of life is to be determined. Aristotle, a student of Plato, is also of the view that the meaning of life lies in attaining the highest good. However, he distinguished between knowledge of the good and practice of good deeds. Thus if a person were to become virtuous, he would not simply study what virtue is, he had to actually do virtuous activities.
He established his understanding of virtue by explaining that everything was done with some goal in mind and that goal is ‘good’: Every skill and every inquiry, and similarly, every action and choice of action, is thought to have some good as its object. This is why the good has rightly been defined as the object of all endeavor. 7 Yet, if action A is done towards achieving goal B, then goal B also would have a goal C, and another, and so would continue this pattern, until something stopped its infinite regression.
This was the highest good which he also believed is achievable through our uniquely human capacity to reason. In other words, the meaning of life is found in the perfection of the intellect. In the medieval and modern periods, these Platonic and Aristotelian views were “incorporated in a worldview centered on the theistic concept of the Will of God as the determinant factor for the meaning of our life, which was then seen as achieving moral perfection in ways pleasing to God. ”8 The Jewish thinker, Moses Maimonides holds that rational perfection is the ultimate perfection.
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He notes that “through it, man becomes man, that is to say, man realizes the meaning of being human. Through it man is able to be in touch with God and is able to understand God. ”9 For him, there is meaning in life and the rational mind is the veritable diagnostic instrument for assessing the meaning of life. Augustine notes that a longing, or desire, for a deeper meaning to life, a kind of homesickness for God is interwoven with our lives and “Only when a person enquires about God, seeks him, desires him, and goes towards him, does he find meaning and fulfillment for his life. 10 Modern philosophy came to experience considerable struggle in its attempt to make this view of the medieval compatible with the rational discourse of philosophy free of any prejudice. With Kant: “certainty concerning purpose and meaning were moved from God to the immediacy of consciousness and conscience, as epitomized in Kant’s teaching of the categorical imperative. ”11 Kant believes that “all actions are performed in accordance with some underlying maxim or principle,”12 and for actions to be ethical, they must adhere to the categorical imperative.
The above views have in common, the assumption that it is possible to discover, and then practice, whatever is seen as the highest good through rational insight. However, a critical look at these views will reveal that highest good is an external ideal. Thus the meaning of life for them is based on an external factor, that is, something outside the self is responsible for the meaning of one’s life. This is the major point of disagreement between the essentialists and the existentialists.
Existentialist views concerning the meaning of life are based on the idea that “it is only personal choices and commitments that can give any meaning to life since, for an individual, life can only be ‘his’ or ‘her’ life, and not an abstractly given entity. ”13 By following this route, existentialist thinkers seek to avoid the trappings of dogmatism and to pursue a more concrete route which is free from doubt and hesitation. With the refusal of committing oneself to an externally-given ideal which was the dominant characteristic of the essentialists comes the limitation of one’s subjective opinion, to that alone which one chooses.
Thus, on the issue of finding meaning in life, Martin Buber suggests that “it is important to ask, what for? What am I to find my particular way for? What am I to unify my being for? ”14 The answer he continues is, ‘not for my own sake’. For Buber, there is meaning in life even amidst the limiting conditions of life and self-transcendence, which according to him is a means of self-realization, is a necessary component of meaning and the search for meaning. Soren Kierkegaard would agree with Martin Buber that in spite of the existential and sometimes disconcerting human conditions there is still meaning in life.
He acknowledged the reality of absurdity and despair in human life but these facts and truths of human existence do not rob human life and life in general of meaning, especially when life is anchored on absolute faith in God. In his work Fear and Trembling, He argued that life is full of absurdity and the individual must make his or her own values in an indifferent world and that only by probing the recesses of his own inner self or subjectivity can the individual find meaning in his life.
In order to find meaning in life therefore, man must regain his individuality and it is only through faith that this individuality is regained. Abraham he believes was able to regain his individuality by going against the demands of ethics in trying to sacrifice his son because it was his faith in will of God that gives meaning to his life as an individual. Kierkegaard therefore concludes that recognizing one’s individuality offer’s meaning to one’s life. Jean Paul Sartre and Albert Camus in their view of the meaning of life first started with the conviction that life has no meaning.
Jean Paul Sartre was pointedly direct in upholding the meaninglessness of life. He states bluntly; “All existing things are born for no reason, continue through weakness and die by accident… it is meaningless that we are born; it is meaningless that we die. ”15According to Sartre therefore, in life and in death human beings are meaningless. He notes that human life has no intrinsic meaning, purpose or direction except the one man gives it. Man can will nothing unless he has first understood that he must count on no one but himself.
That he is alone, abandoned on earth in the midst of his infinite responsibilities, without help, with no other aim than the one he sets himself, with no other destiny than the one he forges for himself on this earth16 For Sartre, the meaning of man’s life is in man. His atheistic rendition of his perception and interpretation of reality challenges man to articulate and reflect coherently, interpret their perception of reality and to explain their relationship to the ultimate reality and to the universe in some meaningful patterns.
Albert Camus contends that “the world has no meaning while human beings in the world seek for meaning in a meaningless world. ”17 He believes that the meaning-seeking human person lives and seeks meaning in a meaningless and an indifferent world. In his work The Myth of Sisyphus, Camus like Sartre moved from the position of absolute meaninglessness to the construction of a secular humanistic viewpoint of meaning in life. He proffered that “in a meaningless and an indifferent world, the human person invents meaning by confronting and cherishing his nights of despair through prideful rebellion. 18 He neither seeks for a transcendent meaning nor a meaning of life outside of what he could personally invent. Based on the reviewed literature, it is discovered that while the essentialists looked for an external entity that gives meaning to man’s life, the existentialists hold that it is man’s responsibility to find meaning in his life as an individual. It is this view that Frankl borrowed and developed in his own concept.
In addition to explaining the fact that the ‘meaning of life’ depends on the meaning one gives to his life, he went further to articulate how one can actually find this meaning through values as shall be seen in the next chapter. However, I shall conclude this chapter with the importance of meaning in the life of human beings. Meanings are at the core of our experience and also at the core of whatever we do. It is only through meanings that we make sense of our existence. In life we find meaning through a sense of purpose which makes life worthwhile.
Frankl pointed out that “a firm sense of meaning is essential for optimal human development. ”19 Bruner puts it more bluntly, noting that “without meaning systems, we would be lost in murk of chaotic experience and probably would not have survived as a species in any case. ”20 Meaning in life is not just a theoretical or philosophical construct, but it has a bearing on human health and well being. Jung asserted that “the absence of meaning is related to psychopathology. ”21 also Irvin Yalom in an empirical research confirmed earlier clinical observations that to live without meaning, goals, or values provokes considerable distress.
Generally, meaning serves a number of important functions in human lives it provides a purpose for our lives. It furnishes values or standards by which to judge our actions. It gives us a sense of control over the events in our life. Lastly, it provides us with self-worth. When people are unable to find meaning for any of these functions or when they lose or outgrow the meanings that they once had, they become distressed. Frankl noted many emotional problems result from a failure to find meaning in life and can be resolved only through finding something to make life worth living.
Finally, the importance of meaning in man’s life is also expressed by the amount of attention that has been given to it by philosophers as has been shown in the review above. It is also on this note that I wish to explore Frankl’s concept of meaning of life as shall be seen in the next chapter. REFERENCES 1. J. Baggini, What’s It All About? Philosophy and The Meaning of Life, (London:Granta Books, 2004), p 19. 2. I. Yalom, Existential Psychotherapy, (New York: Basic Books, 1980), p. 441. 3. Ibid. 4. W. Battista, Cited in K. Chigbo, The Unheard Cry of The Igbo People, (USA:
Graduate Theological Foundation, 2008), p 90. 5. J. Baggini, op. cit. p. 24 6. The Fien Group, The Republic, Encyclopedia of Classics, Software Version, Bk 2. 7. Aristotle, Nichomachean Ethics, Bk 1. 1 8. J. Baggini, op. cit. p. 33. 9. S. Pines (tr. ) The Guide of the Perplexed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1963), p. 55. 10. The Fien Group, ‘Confessions of St Augustine’, Chapter 2, Encyclopedia of Classics, SoftwareVersion. 11. J. Baggini, op. cit. p. 29. 12. Ibid. 13. J. Baggini, op. cit p. 24 14. M. Buber, ‘The Way of Man According to the Teaching of Hasidism’, in W. Kaufman ed. Religion from Tolstoy to Camus, (New York: Harper Torchbooks,1961), p. 425-41 15. J. P. Sartre, Cited in R. Hepburn, Questions About The Meaning of Life, (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press 1959), p. 25 16. Ibid. 17. A. Camus, Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays, (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1955), p. 90 18. Ibid. 19. V. Frankl, The Doctor and The Soul, (New York: Alfred Knopf Inc. , 1983), p. 5 20. T. Brunner, Meaning And Meaning Systems (New York: W. Norton & company, 19 89), p. 21. 21. C. Jung, cited in I. Yalom, Existential Psychotherapy, (New York: Basic Books, 1980), p. 51 CHAPTER 3 VIKTOR FRANKL’S MEANING OF LIFE 3. 1BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OF VIKTOR FRANKL Born on March 26, 1905, In Vienna, Austria, Viktor Frankl existed in a moment that actually needed him. He took care to recognize everyone’s unique essence, and it was that moment that the world needed and called for him. Despite hardship, immense suffering, and unspeakable family tragedies, Viktor Frankl, through his background and professional triumph, fought to cultivate understanding in the world, despite the evil that had entered it. At 17, he lectured in a philosophy seminar on the meaning of life.
It was in this lecture that he delineated the conceptual framework of Logotherapy his own very important theory, most simply defined in healing through meaning. Although his practice and theory was not well received with some medical professionals of the time, with 29 honorary doctorates, 21 distinguished honors and awards, and American Journal of Psychiatry’s claim that his work was “the most significant thinking since Freud and Adler,” there is absolutely no doubt that his teachings, his therapies, and his influence in a world grasping for some semblance of meaning were heard and continue to be heard today.
A student in Berkeley, California once posited to the famous therapist, “…so this is your meaning in life… to help others find meaning in theirs. ” Viktor’s reply was as simple as the theory of his therapy,“that was it, exactly. ” “those are the very words I had written” Viktor Frankl was prepared, as well prepared as one could be, for the unbelievable horrors to come with the advance and occupation of his city, religion, and culture by Fascist dictator Adolf Hitler and the Nazis.
Famously, Frankl gave us a glimpse as to how he came to survive the atrocities of the Holocaust, saying, “When we are no longer able to change a situation – just think of an incurable disease such as inoperable cancer – we are challenged to change ourselves. ” The unspeakable horrors, ones that we still cringe at today, are difficult to imagine. The terror and cruelty, to put it lightly, leave us in despair, leave us shamed to be part of a species that could commit genocide. After surviving the Holocaust and losing his family, which he describes in his book Man’s Search for Meaning, he returned to civilization with his foundation tested. . 2MEANING OF LOGOTHERAPY Etymologically, the term Logotherapy according to Frankl, was derived from two Greek words ‘logos’ which he translated as ‘meaning’ and ‘therapia’ which means ‘healing’. Literally it means the process of ‘healing through meaning’. Logotherapy is a form of psychotherapy which centers on life’s meaning as well as on man’s search for meaning. It conceives man as “a being in search of meaning and responsible for its fulfillment. ”1 It understands its own assignment as that of making the human person conscious of his or her responsibility.
Frankl developed this system to compliment other forms of psychotherapy which had neglected the spiritual aspect of the human person. In his dissatisfaction with the Freudian psychoanalysis and the individual psychology of Adler, he sought and developed Logotherapy as ‘psychotherapy in spiritual terms’. Logotherapy has both the therapeutic aspect and the theoretical aspect, the later being the foundation of the former. The theoretical aspect is based on three philosophical premises namely; Freedom of will, Will to meaning and Meaning of life, which are the fundamental presuppositions that form the basic tenets of Logotherapy.
Since these are interconnected, I shall briefly discuss his concept of the freedom of the will and the will to meaning before delving into an elaborated discussion of his concept of ‘meaning of life’ which is the main focus of this research work. 3. 2. 1 The Freedom of Will Humans are not fully subject to conditions but are basically free to decide and capable of taking their stance towards internal (psychological) and external (biological and social) conditions. Freedom is here defined as the space of shaping one’s own life within the limits of the given possibilities.
This freedom derives from the spiritual dimension of the person, which is understood as the essentially human realm, over and above the dimensions of body and of psyche. As spiritual persons, humans are not just reacting organisms but autonomous beings capable of actively shaping their lives. Frankl’s first premise in his theory is that man has the freedom of will; he can choose his actions and attitudes, although this might not always be easy under certain circumstances. People are subject to a wide variety of limiting conditions and influences – biological, sychological, and socio-cultural. However, he contends that no matter what these conditions are, an individual can take a stand against them. The capacity to take such a stand is based on the freedom to will, to decide and to choose. Frankl reasons that the experiences from the ‘living laboratory’ of the concentration camps offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from man but one thing; “to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way”. He reported how in the camps ‘some behaved like swine while others behaved like saints’ and remarked that “man has both potentialities within himself; which one is actualized depends on decisions, not on conditions,”3 that is, that the sort of person the prisoner became was the result of an inner decision and not the result of camp influences.
As a human being, man’s freedom is restricted; a person is not free from restricting conditions, but free to take a stand toward or against the conditions. This is not unconnected with his second premise, the ‘will to meaning’. . 2. 2 The ‘Will to Meaning’ According to Frankl, “the primary motivational force in man is a striving to realize, or find meaning in his life; it is not a secondary rationalization of instinctual drives”. 4 He contends that man needs something or someone to live for. He has the desire to live a life that means something, a life that has a purpose and a meaning, and that “there is nothing in the world that so effectively helps one to survive even the worst conditions, as the knowledge that there is a meaning in one’s life. 5 On the other hand, this will to meaning, can be frustrated, in which case, Frankl speaks of ‘existential frustration’ which arises if a person is unable to find a purpose. This frustration of the will to meaning leads to a condition that Frankl calls an ‘existential vacuum’ which is “a state in which one feels that life is meaningless. ”6 It is further characterized by a sense of a void in a person’s life and it leads to boredom and apathy.
The next section will be devoted to an elaborate discussion of Frankl’s third premise, the ‘meaning of life? ’ 3. FRANKL’S CONCEPT OF ‘MEANING OF LIFE’ The third premise of Frankl’s theory refers not to the meaning of life in general but rather to the specific meaning of a person’s life at a given moment. According to him, it is this specific meaning that matters because “the meaning of life differs from man to man, from day to day and from hour to hour. ”7 This premise is of the conviction that life has a possible meaning under all circumstances. This meaning always changes but it never ceases to be. It is unique, in that it can only be responsibly fulfilled by a particular individual. Everyone has his own specific vocation or mission in life; to carry out a concrete assignment which demands fulfillment and in which he cannot be replaced, nor can his life be repeated. ”8 Thus, everyone’s task is as unique as his specific opportunity to implement it. Therefore, as each situation in life represents a challenge to man and presents a problem for him to solve, “man must not ask what the meaning of his life is but must recognize that it is he who is questioned by life and that he can only answer to life by being responsible and answering for his own life. 9 Hence it is the individual’s responsibility to discover the meaning of his or her life. Frankl did not elaborate his concept of the meaning of life in a thematic form, but for the purpose of this exposition, his views shall be discussed under the notable themes in his work. 3. 3. 1 Meaning as a Human Phenomenon Frankl notes that questioning the meaning of life is intrinsically human. Confronting this question according to him is the truest expression of the state of being human. Referring to the meaning of life, Frankl maintains: It is the mark of the most human nature in man.
For we can easily imagine highly developed animals or insects like bees or ants which in many aspects of their social organization are superior to man but we can never imagine such creatures raising the question of the meaning of its existence. Thus it is reserved for man alone to find his very existence questionable, to experience the dubiousness of being. 10 This according to him is the main thing that sets the human person apart from other animals. He further remarked the fact that human existence takes the form of ‘historical existence’.
This is in contrast to that of other animals because; Human existence is always placed in a historical space and cannot be extracted from the system of coordinates governing that space. And this frame of reference is always governed by a meaning, although that meaning may be unspoken, and perhaps inexpressible11 In this sense, the activity of an anthill can be called purposeful, but not meaningful. And where meaning is absent, the historical factor cannot be present. This is why an ant nation has no history. Erwin Straus on this fact notes that “the reality of man’s life is inconceivable apart from the historical time factor. 12 3. 3. 2 Responsibility and Responsibleness Frankl differentiates between responsibility and responsibleness. The former comes from possessing the freedom of will. The later refers to exercising our freedom to make the right decisions in meeting the demands of each situation. According to Frankl, man is free to answer the questions he is asked by life. But this freedom must not be confounded with arbitrariness. It must be interpreted in terms of ‘responsibleness’. He notes that “man is responsible for giving the right answer to a question, for finding the true meaning of a situation.
Meaning is something to be found rather than to be given, discovered rather than invented”. 13 He sees this responsibility as implying a sense of obligation and that man’s obligation can only be understood in terms of meaning – the specific meaning of human life. 3. 3. 3 Self Transcendence Having declared that the human person is a responsible creature, and that he or she is called to actualize the potential meaning of his or her life, Frankl stresses that; the true meaning of life is to be found in the world rather than within man or his own psyche, as though it were a closed system.
By the same token, the real aim of human existence cannot be found in what is called self-actualization. Human existence is essentially self-transcendence rather than self actualization14 Self actualization according to him is not a possible aim because the more one strives for it, the more one misses it. But it is to the extent to which one fulfills the meaning of one’s life, that one also actualizes oneself. Thus “self actualization cannot be attained if it is made an end in itself, but only as a side-effect of self-transcendence. ”15 This self transcendence, he regards as the essence of man’s existence.
Auto transcendence as a human phenomenon, is “the property of man by which he constantly goes beyond himself in all that he thinks, wills and all that he realizes or achieves”16 Saying that auto-transcendence is the essence of existence refers to the fact that being human means that existence is directed to something other than itself. It is a characteristic constituent of human existence that it transcends itself, that it reaches out for something other than itself. To put it in Augustinian terms, man’s heart is restless unless he has found, and fulfilled meaning and purpose in life. 7 This explains the fact that human existence is neither authentic nor meaningful unless it is lived in terms of self-transcendence. 3. 3. 4 Relativity of Meaning Frankl’s concept of the relativity of meaning differs from the sense in which relativism conceives of it. He views meanings as relative in that “it is related to a specific person who is entangled in a specific situation. ”18 However, he prefers to speak of it in terms of uniqueness. Uniqueness according to him is “a quality not of a situation but even of life as a whole, since life is a string of unique situations.
Thus man is unique in terms of both essence and existence. ”19 It is by virtue of the uniqueness of this essence and existence that no one can be replaced nor his life be repeated. The unique opportunities to fulfill the meanings are forever gone when one’s life is over. Hillel, the great Jewish sage notes the fact that; “if I don’t do it – who will do it? And if I don’t do it right now – when should I do it? But if I do it for my own sake only – what am I? ”20 ‘If I don’t do it’ refers to the uniqueness of my own self. If I don’t do it right now’ refers to the uniqueness of the passing moment which gives me an opportunity to fulfill a meaning. ‘If I do it for my own sake only’ refers to the self-transcendent quality of human existence, which characteristically transcends itself in that it reaches out for something other than itself. Furthermore, Frankl also notes that there are no such things as a universal meaning of life but only the unique meanings of the individual situations. Our interrogation he notes must be confined to the meaning of a part for we cannot begin to question the purpose of the universe.
Purpose is transcendent to the extent that it is always external to whatever possesses it. We can therefore at best grasp the meaning of the universe in the form of a super-meaning, using the word to convey the idea that the meaning of the whole is no longer comprehensible and goes beyond the comprehensible 21 This points to the fact that the right approach to the question of the meaning of life should be that which radiates the uniqueness of man. To cultivate this meaning of life, there are some necessary conditions and one of the key conditions is the acquisition of values.
I shall dwell on this in the next section. 3. 4 Meaning through Values According to Frankl, “the possession of values alleviates mans search for meaning. ”22 Thus man can find meaning in life through the realization of values. He distinguished three sets of values; creative values, experiential values and attitudinal values which man ought to realize in order that his life be meaningful. I shall now engage in a discussion of these values. 3. 4. 1 Creative Values Frankl designates the value of creativity in work as an important avenue for meaning which is at the disposition of the individual.
He notes that; Work usually represents the area in which the individual’s uniqueness stands in relation to society and thus acquires meaning and value. The meaning and value, however, is attached to the person’s work as a contribution to society not to the actual occupation as such. 23 Frankl emphasizes here that no occupation is the sole road to salvation. Thus what matters is not the occupation but how much of mans uniqueness, creativity and initiative he brings to bear in his work. He opines that
It is true that many persons… insist that they could have fulfilled themselves only if they had gone into a different occupation, but this assertion is either a misunderstanding of what occupation means, or is self deception. If there were cases where the actual occupation does not allow a sense of fulfillment to arise, the fault is in the person, not in the work. The work in itself does not make the person indispensable and irreplaceable; it only gives him the chance to be so. 24 He maintained that the existential importance of work is clearly manifest in the cases of unemployment and joblessness.
The misfortune of unemployment must not be viewed as ones unconditional fate. He believes that man has the capacity and freedom to employ himself meaningfully rather than being pathetic and decide to surrender psychically to the forces of social destiny. For him, work enriched with creativity is a wonderful avenue to achieving a meaningful existence. However the capacity to work is not everything. It is neither a sufficient nor essential basis for a meaningful life. A man can be capable of working and nevertheless not lead a meaningful life; and another can be incapable of working and nevertheless give his life meaning.
Frankl also warns that we may never rest content with achievement either in creating or in experiencing for every hour makes new deeds necessary and new experiences possible. 3. 4. 2 Experiential Values The second principal way of finding meaning in life according to Frankl is by encounters and experiences. He noted that meaning can also be achieved by “experiencing goodness, truth, beauty, nature, culture and last but not the least, by encountering another unique being in the very uniqueness of his being – in other words, by loving him. 25 Among these routes of experiential values, he singled out love and gave it a particular emphasis and elaboration. In his doctrine on love, he distinguished three possible attitudes in reaction and relation to the three layered structure of the human person (physical, psychic and spiritual).
They include the sexual attitude, the erotic attitude and the attitude of true love. The sexual attitude is merely directed toward the partner’s physical being while the body and the erotic attitude, is directed toward the psychic being but the attitude of true love penetrates to the core of the other person’s being.
Love according to Frankl, Is the only way to grasp another human being in the innermost core of his personality. No one can become fully aware of the very essence of another human being unless he loves him. By the spiritual act of love, he is enabled to see the essential traits and features in the beloved person; and even more, he sees that which is potential in him; which is not yet actualized but yet ought to be actualized. Furthermore, by his love, the loving person enables the beloved person to actualize these potentialities.
By making him aware of what he can be and of what he should become, he makes these potentialities come true. 26 It is observed that Frankl sets love on a plane above ordinary sex or infatuation. The object of love, he opines must be the essence of the beloved and as long as this is the case, we must always be enriched whenever we love whether or not our love is returned. The experience of true love he maintains affords us the opportunity to expand our world by entering into the world of another person. It also leads us to the realization of noble values such as helping others actualize their potentials and becoming the best they can be.
He thus enjoined man never to decline from loving in spite of the pains, disappointments and failures that accompany it for “even when our experiences in love turn out unhappily, we are not only enriched, but also given a deeper sense of life; such experiences are the chief things which foster inner growth and maturity. ”27 This inner growth and maturity in turn influence our attitude. 3. 4. 3 Attitudinal Values Life according to Frankl proves to be basically meaningful even when it is neither fruitful in creation nor rich in experience.
So, when life is lacking in creative and experiential values, it could still be meaningful. The third group of values lies precisely in a man’s attitude toward the limiting factors of his life. His response to the restraints upon his potentialities provides him with a new realm of values which Frankl notes, as being among the highest values. Thus “an apparently impoverished existence – one which is poor in creative and experiential values – still offers a last and in fact the greatest opportunity for the realization of values. ”28 These values he referred to as attitudinal values.
According to him, these are values which are Actualized whenever the individual is faced with something unalterable, something imposed by destiny. From the manner in which a person takes these things upon himself, assimilates those difficulties into his own psyche, there flows an incalculable multitude of value potentialities. This means that human life can be fulfilled not only in creating and enjoying but also in suffering. 29 This points to the fact that man can also fulfill the meaning of his existence by his attitude toward pain, guilt and death (the tragic triad of existence according to Frankl).
He opined that we must not perceive our inevitable sufferings and predicaments pessimistically but rather, we should adopt an optimistic position and courageously confront them. No doubt he views suffering as a positive human phenomenon and he accords it a place of honour in human life. For him, suffering is “intended to guard man from apathy…. As long as we suffer, we remain psychically alive. In fact we mature in suffering, grow because of it – it makes us richer and stronger. ”30 He further noted that; Suffering and trouble belong to life as much as fate and death.
None of these can be subtracted from life without destroying its meaning. To subtract trouble, death, fate and suffering from life would mean stripping life of its form and shape. Only under the hammer blows of fate, in the white heat of suffering does life gain shape and form. 31 However Frankl remarkably noted that the suffering he is talking about is specifically an inevitable suffering and not the kind of suffering we impose on ourselves and for which we are culpable. He regards such behavior as a form of masochism rather than heroism. As such we ought to avoid avoidable sufferings.
The human destiny has a twofold approach; to be shaped where possible and to be endured where necessary. Passive endurance still retains the immanent meaning of all suffering but on the other hand, man must be on his guard against the temptation to lay down his arms prematurely by accepting the state of things as destined and fated too soon. Only when he no longer has any possibility of actualizing creative values, that is, when there is really no means at hand for shaping fate, then it is the time for attitudinal values to be actualized; then alone does it have meaning for him to ‘take his cross’.
The very essence of an attitudinal value inheres in the manner in which a person resigns himself to the inevitable. Therefore, in order that attitudinal values be truly actualized, it is important that the fate one resigns oneself to must be actually inevitable. Thus attitudinal values afford one the opportunity to make meaning out of one’s life. By virtue of one’s humanness, one is capable of rising above and taking a stand before one’s tragic, unavoidable and inescapable fate. 3. 4. 4 The Flexibility of Values
Frankl explains that in life, the opportunity to address oneself to this or that group of values varies from hour to hour. In some circumstances, one might be called upon to enrich the world by one’s actions (creative values), and at other times, either to enrich oneself by one’s experiences (experiential values) or to choose ones attitude towards a particular condition in life (attitudinal values).
However, one is not obligated to fulfill any particular set of values but one ought to at least realize one or even all of them for life offers the opportunity for the realization of values in any condition till the last moment.
The values discussed above are the meaning-oriented values which one needs to realize in order to achieve a meaningful life according to Frankl. It follows then that if the values one possesses are not meaning-oriented, then there is need for a value reorientation. However, before stressing this fact, a proper understanding of the concept values is necessary so as to determine which kinds of value needs reorientation. REFERENCES 1. V. Frankl, Man’s Search For Meaning,(USA: Washington Square Press, 1985), p. 120 2. Ibid. p. 86 3. Ibid. p. 87 4. Ibid. p. 121 5. V. Frankl, The Will To Meaning, (USA: Penguin Books inc. ,1988), p. 33 6.
V. Frankl, Man’s Search For Meaning, p. 128 7. Ibid. p. 99 8. Ibid. p. 131 9. Ibid. 10. V. Frankl, The Doctor And The Soul, (New York: Alfred Knopf Inc. , 1983), p. 26 11. Ibid. 12. Ibid. 13. Ibid. p. 275 14. V. Frankl, Man’s Search For Meaning, P. 101 15. Ibid. 16. B. Mondin, Philosophical Anthropology, (Bangalore: Theological Publications in India,1998), p. 10 17. V. Frankl, The Will To Meaning, p. 31 18. Ibid. p. 54 19. Ibid 20. Hillel, Cited in V. Frankl, The Will To Meaning, p. 55 21. V. Frankl, The Doctor And The Soul, p. 31 22. V. Frankl, The Will To Meaning, p. 56 23. V. Frankl, The Doctor And The Soul, p. 122 24. Ibid. p. 30 25. Ibid. p. 138 26. V. Frankl, Man’s Search For Meaning, p. 134 27. V. Frankl, The Doctor And The Soul, p. 133 28. Ibid. p. 44 29. Ibid. p. 106 30. Ibid. 31. Ibid. p. 122 CHAPTER 4 4. 0 FRANKL’S EXISTENTIAL ANALYSIS: A KEY FOR THE SUFFERING NIGERIAN MASSES 4. 1 THE CONCEPT OF SUFFERING There have been many events in recent history to which the only immediate response possible was tears followed by the anguished question “Why? ” The slaughter of the Jews, the annihilation of Hiroshima, the massacres in Africa, the plundering of Third World economies with starving families and children, the genocide in Cambodia.
There is no end to our suffering in the material world as long as we remain trapped by our desires and conditioning in the bodily conception. Man may attain wealth, beauty, power or other material opulences, yet he cannot escape the suffering caused by birth, old age, disease and death. Even if his material conditions appear to improve as he moves from body to body through various lifetimes, it is certain that he will always suffer the miseries of birth and death. As long as the living entity is subject to such suffering there is no question of being free from suffering.
Suffering is antagonistic to man, man has abhorrence for it. However experience has taught us that life is somehow intertwined with suffering. Suffering is our existential brother who is always with us even when we try to flee from it. Suffering should not be totally viewed as a negative phenomenon but as an opportunity of attaining unique goals. To this frankl says: When a man finds it is his destiny to suffer he will have to accept suffering as His Task, his single and unique task. He will have to acknowledge the fact that even in suffering he is unique & alone in the universe.
No one can relieve him of his suffering or suffer in his stead. His unique opportunity lies in the way in which he bears his burden. 1 It is in this sense that suffering bears meaning to life. Suffering like life has meaning if we approach it from the right side. Acceptance of suffering prepares us to understand what meaning it offers. It is meaningless to create suffering conditions for ourselves but when it becomes necessary that we ought to pass through suffering to sustain our existence then our attitude towards it will determine what meaning it will offer us.
No doubt he views suffering as a positive human phenomenon and he accords it a place of honour in human life. For him, suffering is intended to guard man from boredom. As long as we suffer, we remain psychically alive. In fact we mature in suffering, grow because of it it makes us richer and stronger. He further noted that; Suffering and trouble belong to life as much as fate and death. None of these can be subtracted from life without destroying its meaning. To subtract trouble, death, fate and suffering from life would mean stripping life of its form and shape.
Only under the hammer blows of fate, in the white heat of suffering does life gain shape and form. 2 However Frankl remarkably noted that the suffering he is talking about is specifically an inevitable suffering and not the kind of suffering we impose on ourselves and for which we are culpable. He regards such behavior as a form of masochism rather than heroism. As such we ought to avoid avoidable sufferings. 4. 2 SUFFERING IN THE NIGERIAN SYSTEM Nigeria’s large population and historic ethnic instability has led to the adoption of a federal government.
The resultant fiscal decentralization provides Nigeria’s state and local governments’ considerable autonomy, including control over 50% of government revenues, as well as responsibility for providing public services. The lack of a stringent regulatory and monitoring system, however, has allowed for rampant corruption. This has hindered past poverty alleviation efforts, and will continue to do so, since resources which could pay for public goods or directed towards investment (and so create employment and other opportunities for citizens) are being misappropriated.
The poor get poorer and the harsh living condition creates an entirely new concentration camp not quite different from that of the Nazi. Poverty in Nigeria is rising with almost 100 million people living on less than $1; about this fact C. Mmadubuko notes that: Nigeria is a country where her leaders, past and present and their collaborators are abundantly richer than the government while the teaming population wallows in abject poverty.
A country where the poor have no means of attaining university education while scholarships are given indiscriminately to the children of the rich, at times, from a favoured section of the federation. A country where the poverty eradication program is a means of empowering the rich to get richer and poor poorer. A country where developmental projects are concentrated in only one part of the federation; where federal appointments are based on my-own-people-whom-I-know-and-from-whom-I-shall-hide-nothing. 3
This points to the fact that the living condition of Nigeria is such that favours only the privileged and the well-connected. In the economic sector, “bribery and corruption has become institutionalized virtually in every sphere of the Nigerian socio-economy,”4 corrupt individuals are today deliberately placed in key posts to ensure continuity in draining the national wealth through corrupt practices. Also, in the distribution of the country’s social amenities, “some regions or geopolitical zones are clearly discriminated against because of their tribe or religion. 5 This is why Andah notes that the problems of Nigeria “…are complicated by the inter-ethnic strife and conflicts and all that such strife bring with it. Furthermore Chinua Achebe reacting to the Nigerian situation, summarizes Nigeria as …one of the most disorderly nation in the world. It is one of the most corrupt insensitive, inefficient places under the sun; it is one of the most expensive countries and one of those that give least value for money. It is dirty, callous, noisy, ostentatious, dishonest and vulgar. In short it is among the most unpleasant places on earth. 6
He added that one of the commonest manifestations of under-development in Nigeria is the tendency among the ruling elite to live in a world of ‘make believe’ and unrealistic expectations. Also, there is the problem of unemployment which is as rampart as no other thing in Nigeria especially among the youths and graduates. Mmadubuko notes that “hundreds of thousands of qualified and employable youths and school leavers roam the streets because there is no job, as a result, there are wide spread hunger and illiteracy in the country…” 7 and that sometimes, “…or gratification is demanded from job seekers before jobs could be offered. 8 He further sums up the detestable condition of Nigeria based on the “facts of underdevelopment, war, ethnic disturbances, marginalization, unemployment and environmental degradation…. ”9 What else would a person faced with these conditions and their likes do apart from seeking any means possible for survival. This scenario brings to mind Abraham Maslow’s pyramid of needs for mere mentioning. Unless the survival needs are fully satisfied, the subsequent ones will never be attained. This ill condition pulls the Nigerian man to exist under the sphere of seeking to survive.
This in turn is a very dangerous state of existence which could possibly lead man to lose his reason and act only on instincts. Such a condition offers no good but increases the number of insanity on our streets 4. 3 THE APPLICATION OF FRANKL’S SOLUTION TO THE NIGERIAN SITUATION A worthwhile question to be asked now is: why Frankl’s own existential analysis? It is evident however, that Viktor Emile Frankl stands out based on his profession and experience as a better advisor on existential matters.
Man in other to survive the ill situations life may avail him needs to be fundamentally an optimist. The suffering Nigerian masses as I have already noted with citations and explanations are constantly faced with a replica Nazi camp situation through the constant up surging societal injustice and maltreatment, Boko Haram mayhem anchoring on insecurity, political cum economical punishing strategies such as the recent fuel subsidy issue, all these pain striking situation have their hands practically pointing towards the poor suffering Nigerian masses. What is the way out?
Where is the liberation for these suffering masses? Is their case hopeless? I don’t think so. I, in an appraisal of the basic existential analysis of Viktor Emile Frankl suggest this as a key for the liberation of the suffering Nigerian masses. A summary of Frankl’s logotherapy suggests that for man who is faced with different kinds of troubles he could still find meaning in life in the face of all these through subscribing to certain values, namely: creative values, experiential values, and attitudinal values. 4. 3. 1 Liberation through values 4. 3. 2. 1 Creative work
Logotherapy claims that work, a process that takes so much time from our life, may be a source of meaning, direction, fulfillment, for many an important source of meaning, for some the only source. The job becomes that well of meaning and fulfillment, if it is creative. The word itself means creating something new that did not exist before: not only in the sense of revolutionizing technologies, discovering new principles in science, or creating an art masterpiece, but most often just participating in a modest and unambitious process of gaining knowledge, trust, kindness, love…
This quality is of a fundamentally subjective character. The job does not contain creativity in itself. A white-color job can be boring, and a job of a volunteer helping kids to cross the street fulfilling and exciting. The one who is doing the work can make it unique: creative and interesting, or dull and boring. It is only a matter of attitude. Though the Nigerian poor masses may stay unemployed by the government but he still stands a chance of looking for whatever job or work he can find to engage him rather than staying idle.
Creativity is encouraged, man is individually blessed with different natural skills, and Nigerians in this condition can be creative with the naturally acquired skills they discover in themselves. This will go a long way to offer meaning to their lives. 4. 3. 2. 2Experiential values The basis of meaningfulness of human existence is one’s singularity, one’s uniqueness. But an individual can actualize the creative values of his/her personality only through the external world: through something done for people. In response, the world, “the community” confers meaning upon the individual’s uniqueness and singularity.
In fact, the external world becomes an indispensable part of one’s personality. It enters one’s personality in two ways: through the “impersonal” effect of Nature, Books, Music, Art and Culture in general (recall the role of these factors in strengthening the will to survive in the Nazi concentration camps! ), and through encounters with people. Martin Buber, a great Jewish religious philosopher, once said: Behind every meeting, every encounter – responsibility. ” To those who agree with Buber, there is only one answer to the question “Am I my brother’s keeper? – spewed by Cain in self defense: “Yes, I am the keeper of my brothers – all over the world! Nigerians should learn the need for interrelatedness, because the feeling of not being alone also offers meaning to our existence. The next value am about to discourse is the backbone of all these values which offers meaning to life. When we have tried all we could to find meaning in life and we didn’t or we are placed in a condition that prevents us from creative work and experiential values. Here we can no longer change the situation but we still have a chance of changing ourselves. 4. 3. 2. 3Attitudinal value
In his book “Psychotherapy and Existentialism” Viktor Frankl opined that there exists not only a will to pleasure and a will to power but also a will to meaning. Now we see further: We have not only the possibility of giving a meaning to our life by creative acts and beyond that by the experience of Truth, Beauty, and Kindness, of Nature, Culture, and human beings in their uniqueness and individuality, and of love; we have not only the possibility of making life meaningful by creating and loving, but also by suffering so that when we can no longer change our fate by action, what matters is the right attitude towards fate.
This third avenue to meaning is, perhaps, the most important one. Too often we forget that suffering is an unavoidable and ineradicable part of human life. Without it, life could not be complete. Suffering albeit in unequal degrees accompanies us through all our lives, eventually terminating in death. Finding meaning in suffering is not as much the ability to cope with suffering and not letting it destroy oneself, but the possibility of “rising above oneself,” “growing beyond oneself,” and thus “changing oneself. In “Man’s Search for Meaning” Frankl writes: “Here lies a chance for a man either to make use or to forgo the opportunities of attaining the moral values that a difficult situation may afford him. And this decides whether he is worthy of his sufferings or not. ” 10And a few pages later: “When a man finds that it is his destiny to suffer, he will have to accept his suffering as his task; his single and unique task. He will have to acknowledge the fact that even in suffering he is unique and alone in the universe. No one can relieve him of his suffering or suffer in his place.
His unique opportunity lies in the way in which he bears his burden”11 Frankl proves that a human being may turn a personal tragedy into a triumph. This indeed is the option most Nigerians need in other to survive this bad state of affair in our country. REFERENCES 1. V. Frankl, Man’s Search For Meaning,(USA: Washington Square Press, 1985), p. 78 2. V. Frankl, The Doctor And The Soul, p. 122 3. C. C. Mmadubuko, Nigeria: A Nation In Dilema, (Enugu: His Glory Publications, 2008), p. 37 4. Ibid. 5. Ibid. 6. C. Achebe, The Trouble with Nigeria, (Enugu: Fourth Dimension Publishing Co. Ltd, 1983), p. 11. 7. C. C. Mmadubuko, op. cit. , p. 120 8. Ibid. , p. 110 9. Ibid. , p. 43 10. V. Frankl, Man’s Search For Meaning,(USA: Washington Square Press, 1985), p. 88 11. Ibid. p99 CHAPTER 5 GENERAL EVALUATION AND CONCLUSION 5. 1GENERAL EVALUATION A Freudian man, having been put into conditions of endless suffering and deprivation would have had to turn into an animal, with the lowest possible instincts taking over the whatever “civilized” and humane had been implanted during the previous life. Too often that was the case in the Nazi concentration camps.
People betrayed each others, or stole precious food from their comrades, even when that could hasten the unfortunate’s death – all the means were good if they helped to save their own lives. And yet, in his account of the psychology of the concentration camp (Man’s Search for Meaning, MSM) Viktor Frankl gives quite a few examples of human behavior that disprove Freud’s theory. They do not, in fact, quite disprove. Those examples rather prove that one can elevate oneself, rise from that abyss of the animal to the heights of the human. In the concentration camp, in this living laboratory and on this testing ground, we watched and witnessed some of our comrades behave like swine while others behaved like saints. Man has both potentials within himself; which one is actualized depends on decisions but not on conditions”1. As such this study emphasizes personal responsibility which “is the acknowledgment that you, through your thinking, feeling and behaving, are in control of how you experience life. ”2 When we take responsibility, we admit we are the ones in control of the choices we make. We, not other people or events, are responsible for the way we think and feel.
It is our life, and we are in charge of it and as such, are responsible for giving it meaning. We might not be responsible for all that happens to us, but we are responsible for how we think, feel, and act when they happen. This responsibility is nothing other than the freedom to create our own lives. Stephen Covey’s analysis of the word responsibility helps drive this point home; Look at the word responsibility – “response-ability” – the ability to choose your response. Highly proactive people recognize that responsibility. They do not blame circumstances, conditions, or conditioning for their behavior.
Their behavior is a product of their own conscious choice, based on values, rather than a product of their conditions, based on feeling. 3 Thus the ability to choose our response to life situations has much to do with how we live our life and the meaning we give to it. Furthermore, responsibility helps us to recognize our uniqueness and singularity for it is inherent in human beings and makes us see the fact that we are ‘alone in a multitude’ in terms of giving meaning to our lives. This uniqueness and singularity according to Frankl “are essential constituents of meaningfulness of human existence. 4 It follows such a rotational form in the sense that recognizing our uniqueness and singularity, in turn helps us to be more conscious of our responsibility. This is why Frankl, in order to emphasize the seriousness of the task which is faced by every individual brings forth the concept of ‘responsibleness’ which according to him refers to the exercising of our ‘freedom of will’ whereas responsibility only refers to the possession of the freedom of the will. Thus, he said that “the meaning of life should be understood in terms of responsibleness and not responsibility. 5 Every human being by nature has the responsibility over his or her own life but our ability and decision to be responsible or our consciousness of our responsibility is what constitutes responsibleness. This is similar to Sartre’s comprehensive theory of individual responsibility where he notes that man …carries the weight of the whole world on his shoulders; he is responsible for the world and for himself as a way of being. We are taking the word ‘responsibility’ in its ordinary sense as ‘consciousness (of) being the incontestable author of an event or object. In this sense the responsibility of the ‘for-itself’ is overwhelming since he is the one by whom it happens that there is a world…6 Sartre bases his theory of responsibility upon existential ontology. He notes that there are two types of being, “‘being-in-itself’ which is the non-conscious world at large and ‘being-for-itself’ which is the human consciousness. ”7 This human consciousness refers to Frankl’s consciousness of responsibility because according to Sartre, it is human consciousness that determines man’s life. Thus, being-for-itself means consciousness towards or for something which is the ‘itself’.
Frankl notes it is consciousness towards the meanings to be fulfilled by man and for man himself. This brings to the fore, his notion of self-transcendence where he notes that human existence is directed towards something. Thus it transcends itself towards meanings to be fulfilled for itself. Finally Frankl also notes that this responsibility is to be understood in terms of obligation. A man is under obligation to fulfill the meaning of his life. In other words, a man is under obligation to realize values, meaning-oriented values which will enhance his attainment of meaningful life.
His discussion on the values to be attained shows that man’s life can never be intrinsically meaningless. A man’s life retains its meaning up to the last minute for even when he is not capable of realizing the creative and experiential values; he can make do with the attitudinal values. The above shows the fact that the Nigerian can have no reason for not attaining a meaningful life for the opportunities abound everywhere and at every time. But he cannot do this if he views his condition pessimistically and allows the wave of the ill conditions that surrounds him toss him here and there. 5. CONCLUSION Man by his very nature is always in a deep search for meaning, all that he does is aimed at gaining meaning. It is still more apparent that the suffering man loses even the little he would have dared to understand, and suffering is intertwined with our lives in different degrees. The importance of a meaningful life cannot be over emphasized. Without it we are prone to lose our reason and act with our instincts. It is with a meaningful life that one is able to find connections to people, places, and things and leave a mark on society; it transforms a good life into a meaningful one.
These considerations show that we must create our own meaning for our lives. Frankl offers us three avenues in which we can make meaning to our lives. We Nigerians who dwell in what Chinua Achebe referred to as “one of the most corrupt insensitive, inefficient places under the sun” need to have creative values, experiential values and lastly and most importantly attitudinal values if we must make meaning out of these harsh living conditions around us. REFERENCES 1. V. Frankl, Man’s Search For Meaning,(USA: Washington Square Press, 1985), p. 157 2. W. Gellermann, M. Frankel & R. Ladenson, (eds. , Values and Ethics in Organization and Human Systems Development: Responding to Dilemmas in Professional Life, (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publications, 1999), p. 124. 3. S. Covey, Philosophy and Responsibility, (Chicago: Cambridge University Press, 1998), p. 15 4. V. Frankl, The Doctor And The Soul, (New York: Alfred Knopf Inc. , 1983), p. 55. 5. V. Frankl, Man’s Search For Meaning, p. 131 6. J. P Sartre, Existentialism is a Humanism, in Encyclopedia of Classics, Software Version. 7. J. P Sartre, Being and Nothingness, (London: Routledge Classics, 2003), pp 73-105 BIBLIOGRAPHY ACHEBE C. The Trouble with Nigeria, Enugu: Fourth Dimension Publishing Co. , Ltd, 1983 ARISTOTLE,Nichomachean Ethics. ASAGBA R. , Logotherapy and Cultural Development, Ibadan: Spectrum Books Ltd, 2006. BAGGINI J. , What’s It All About? Philosophy and The Meaning of Life, London: Granta Books, 2004 BAILEY V. (ed. ), Perspectives on values, America: La SierraUniversity Press, 1993. BRUNNER T. , Meaning And Meaning Systems. New York: W. Norton & company, 1989 BUNCHUA K. , et al (eds. ), The Bases ofValues In A Time of Change:Chinese Philosophical Studies, Vol 16.
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