Ryan talks about Viktor Frankl and some themes in contemporary American philosophy. In the twentieth century, like his contemporaries Jaspers and Heidegger, Frankl is deeply involved with these two themes of existentialism, human freedom and values, which he adopted and developed. Besides his manifold writings and lectures dealing with these basic themes of existentialism, Frankl is likewise a contemporary of other important philosophies, both in Europe and the US. One of these philosophies--or better, a philosophical movement--is postmodernity, a contemporary philosophical movement in both in Europe and in the US. Some themes related to those of postmodernity are present in the writings of the contemporary American philosophers and essayists Stanley Fish and Richard Rorty. Both Fish and Rorty are well-known contemporary philosophers and essayists whose writings adopt and clarify some of the principal ideas of postmodernity in an American context.