Reflecting on Miki Kiyoshi’s The Logic of Imagination

Abstract This review essay discusses, summarizes, and evaluates Miki Kiyoshi’s The Logic of Imagination . In his magnum opus , Miki shows how myth, culture, and institutions are born out of a creative imagination ( 構想力 ) rooted in logos (language and reason) and pathos (affect). As a response to the Neo-Kantians, the empiricists, and Hegel, Miki demonstrates how humans, at the depths of consciousness, unify logos and pathos to produce historical forms from out of the formless nothing. Miki claims that we must view this transformation of forms as one of technological production, as the creation and transformation of historical forms cannot exist without historical action. While Miki’s theory of the creative imagination is mostly convincing, his account is not without problems. This review essay will close with an evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of Miki’s most ambitious project as well as a few words on the translation itself.