existential meaning
Purpose of being
Existential meaning refers to a sense of purpose, significance, or coherence in one's life—the feeling that existence matters and has direction.
Philosophy and psychology distinguish it from smaller satisfactions: She found existential meaning in her work with refugees.
The search for existential meaning drives much human behavior, from religious faith to creative pursuits to raising children.
- human conditionUniversal aspects of existence
- purposeReason something exists
- life purposeCore motivation for being
- logotherapyTreatment through meaning discovery
- absurdismPhilosophy embracing existence's irrationality
finitude · values clarification · transcendence · inner void · authenticity · lived experience · ontology · hope · leap of faith · self-actualization · dark night of the soul · fear · freedom · moral reasoning · being · Sartre · Camus · responsibility
- spiritualitysacred, enlightened, divine, holy, spiritual growth
existential meaningmeaninglessness
Lack of significance
purposelessness · existential void · nihilism · absurdity · futility
existential meaninggoing through the motions
Performing without genuine effort
subsistence · alienation · disconnection · inauthenticity · bad faith
existential meaningsuperficiality
Absence of meaningful depth
triviality · shallowness · banality · pettiness · frivolity