TY - JOUR TI - The Meaning of Life: A Concept Analysis in the Light of the Humanities AU - Kozera-Mikuła, Patrycja TI - The Meaning of Life: A Concept Analysis in the Light of the Humanities AB - The concept of the MEANING OF LIFE operates in language as a polysemantic structure which must be seen against the background of philosophical, anthropological, theological, psychological, pedagogical, sociological and cultural concepts. The question about the MEANING OF LIFE, which includes the search for the essence and purpose of human existence, the human vocation, the reasons for making an effort to live and for why it is worth living, constitutes one of the crucial questions of various philosophical and religious systems, and attempts to answer it bear evidence to the wealth of the humanistic knowledge and reflection on human life. The concept of the MEANING OF LIFE is extremely vague in its nature, and it may also be included among the religious concepts that concern the reality which cannot be captured empirically. The author analyzes lexicographical sources, literature on the subject, resources of the National Corpus of Polish and the results of a survey carried out among Polish language speakers. The description of the concept of the MEANING OF LIFE, made by analyzing representative words and linguistic constructions that fall within it, as well as numerous psychological concepts, leads to indicating basic conceptual categories contributing to the concept today and to showing how the concept of the MEANING OF LIFE is currently expressed in Polish and in the humanities. VL - 2020 IS - Volume 25 Issue 2 PY - 2020 SN - 1895-6297 C1 - 2084-3879 SP - 9 EP - 28 DO - 10.4467/20843879PR.20.009.12264 UR - https://ejournals.eu/en/journal/psychologia-rozwojowa/article/sens-zycia-analiza-pojecia-w-swietle-nauk-humanistycznych KW - meaning of life (definition) KW - MEANING OF LIFE (concept) KW - the sense of the meaning of life KW - the need for meaning in life KW - existentialism KW - logotherapy KW - development in the course of life