Dignity: Frankl and the grounding of meaning

Viktor Frankl's "Man's Search for Meaning" is worth reading for many reasons, but its most durable contribution is the observation, and recognition, that dignity is not a luxury. It is fundamental to being human, and, in extreme situations, essential to human survival. He saw meaning as the route to building and preserving that dignity. In less extreme situations, a less survival-based life may be adequate to flourish as a human.

Frankl writes: "Ultimately, man should not ask what the meaning of his life is, but rather he must recognise that it is he who is asked. In a word, each man is questioned by life; and he can only answer to life by answering for his own life; to life he can only respond by being responsible.”

Tempting as it is to read this as a prescription, Frankl is describing, not dictating. Taking his observation as a starting point, the answer each of us arrives at is up to us. If hedonism is our answer, so be it. If Epicurean friendship and ataraxia is your answer, equally fine. The Protestant Work Ethic cast of mind, which tends to disapprove of pleasure as a candidate for deep meaning, has no authority. Meaning is discovered, not awarded, certainly not by others.

The contingent nature of meaning does not make dignity arbitrary too, they are distinct. Meaning is linguistic, framing experience. Dignity is fundamental, prelinguistic, part of our evolved constitution as social animals. A person can choose any meaning and still possess dignity, or forfeit dignity.

Frankl's observation was that those who held most fiercely to what they took as a reason to live survived the concentration camps at higher rates than those who did not. This is not a proof that deep meaning is universally necessary, but a powerful argument for developing deep meaning if survival under extreme conditions matters to you. You do not need to see that survival, as Frankl does, as demanded by your humanity.

If you prefer to live lightly and accept that, should horror arrive, it will take you early, that's a reasonable decision. The gadfly who dies in the first winter of a catastrophe has not necessarily lived less well, and has, to his inclination, avoided the rigours of surviving.

The real question is not what meaning you choose but whether the meaning you choose preserves dignity, your own and that of others.

A meaning entailing the humiliation or domination of others, destroys your own dignity.

We can choose whatever meaning we like, as long as it does not compromise the dignity of others.