The article analyzes the origin and evolution of such an innovative trend in Russian human studies as a reflexive semantic approach to the study of the properties and mechanisms of the development of thinking and personality in education. The historical and scientific prerequisites for the formation of life-meaning psychology are revealed, and the logic of its development in the Silver Age of Russian Culture and in modern human studies in interaction with philosophy, acmeology, and pedagogy is explicated. Against this background, the role of the outstanding humanitarian M. M. Rubinstein in the development of meaningful pedagogical psychology in the first third of the twentieth century is shown, the levels of his cognitive activity are characterized for the first time, and the importance of creative heritage for modern science and education is summarized.