Chapter Six. A Study Of Man In Crisis: Late 1932-1935

Abstract

After 1932, Miki Kiyoshi appears to have successfully reinvented himself as editor, journalist and leading commentator on public affairs. However, this was a time of great personal as well as national crisis. In the mid-1930s much of his philosophy and journalism appears to be characterised by attempts to reconcile binary oppositions such as logos and pathos, classicism and romanticism, rationalism and irrationalism, nature and technology. These philosophical discussions address, albeit indirectly, deeper concerns about the rise of fascism and neo-romanticism in Japan. Miki settled into a new routine outside academia and began to build a reputation as a high-profile discussant of public affairs. For Miki, the literature and philosophy of Angst posed more of a threat to the position of the intellectual within Japanese society, than the 'Western' creeds of democracy, individualism and liberalism. Miki argued that human behaviour cannot be understood from the point of view of determinism.Keywords: Angst; Japanese philosophy; Miki Kiyoshi