Viktor Frankl’s Laws of Dimensional Ontology and The Fallacy of the Dominant Dimension
Viktor Frankl, a concentration camp survivor and the founder of Logotherapy, is most known for his classic book Man’s Search for Meaning. The construct of meaning forms the core of his philosophy. He identified an important framework that’s not as widely known — his laws of dimensional ontology.
Although sounding esoteric, it’s fairly fundamental, and helps explain a common mistake we make in work and life. What were his laws of dimensional ontology, and how can they help?
Frankl's work differentiated the three domains of physical, mental, and "noological" (spiritual) aspects of human existence. He highlighted problems caused by focusing exclusively on only one of physical or mental aspects.
To illustrate these challenges, he used a framework based on what he called dimensional anthropology and ontology. Essentially, it uses the geometrical concept of dimensions to show how focusing on one "dimension" causes blindspots in others, or misinterpret what's actually going on.
The primary thrust of Frankl’s argument was that human beings exist in the "noological" (spiritual) dimension that sits higher than the psychological and biological. The moment we reduce ourselves to lower dimensions, it causes inconsistencies, contradiction, and confusion.
