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Experiential values

The second path to meaning: receiving what the world gives us - love, encounter with another, beauty, nature, art, truth.

Definition

We realise experiential values when we receive something: when we experience beauty, truth, goodness, an encounter with another person and, above all, love.

Love

For Frankl love is the deepest way of grasping another human being in their uniqueness. When we love, we see in someone not only who they are but also who they can become - and we help them realise it.

In “Man's Search for Meaning” Frankl described how in the camp, marching to work, he talked in his mind with his wife - not even knowing whether she was alive. He then experienced that “love is the ultimate and the highest goal to which man can aspire”.

A single moment is enough

Frankl wrote that sometimes a single moment of experience - wonder at a sunset or at music - can give meaning to a whole life.

Sources

V. E. Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning; The Doctor and the Soul.

See also