KIM JONG IL
THE
JUCHE PHILOSOPHY IS AN ORIGINAL
REVOLUTIONARY PHILOSOPHY
Discourse Published in Kulloja, Theoretical Magazine of the Central Committee of
the
Worker’s Party of Korea
July
26, 1996
An opinion has recently been raised that
some of our social scientists had
expressed a wrong view contrary to our
Party’s idea in explaining the Juche
philosophy, that this view had been
disseminated abroad as well.
These social scientists still attempt to
explain the basic principles of the
Juche philosophy from the point of view
of the general law of the development of
the material world, instead of
explaining them in the direction of
clarifying the law of social movement.
The proponents of this view say that
their argument is aimed at proving that
the Juche philosophy is a new
development also of Marxist
materialistic dialectics. In explaining
and propagating the Juche philosophy we
do not need to convince people that the
Juche philosophy is a new development of
Marxist materialistic dialectics. It is
true that our Party has not taken a
dogmatic approach to Marxist
materialistic dialectics but analysed it
from the point of view of Juche and has
given new explanations to a number of
problems. However, some development of
materialism and dialectics does not
constitute the basic content of the
Juche philosophy.
The Juche philosophy is an original
philosophy which has been evolved and
systematized with its own principles.
The historic contribution made by the
Juche philosophy to the development of
philosophical thoughts lies not in its
advancement of Marxist materialistic
dialectics, but in its clarification of
new philosophical principles centred on
man.
The Marxist philosophy raised the
relationship between material and
consciousness, between being and
thinking, as the fundamental question of
philosophy and proved the primacy of
material, the primacy of being and, on
this basis, elucidated that the world is
made of material and changed and
developed by the motion of material. The
Juche philosophy has raised the
relationship between the world and man,
and man’s position and role in the
world, as the fundamental question of
philosophy, clarified the philosophical
principle that man is the master of
everything and that he decides
everything and, on this basis,
illuminated the absolutely correct way
of shaping man’s destiny. The Marxist
philosophy raised as its major task the
clarification of the essence of the
material world and the general law of
its motion, whereas the Juche philosophy
has raised as its important task the
elucidation of man’s essential
characteristics and the law of social
movement, man’s movement. Therefore,
the Juche philosophy is an original
philosophy which is fundamentally
different from the preceding philosophy
in its task and principles. That is why
we should not understand the Juche
philosophy as a philosophy that has
developed materialistic dialectics, nor
should we attempt to prove the
originality and advantages of the Juche
philosophy by arguing one way or the
other about the essence of the material
world and the general law of its motion
which were clarified by the Marxist
philosophy. You cannot explain the Juche
philosophy in the framework of the
preceding philosophy because it is a
philosophy that has clarified new
philosophical principles. If you
attempt to do so, you will not only fail
to prove the originality of the Juche
philosophy, but instead make it obscure
and fail to understand the essence of
Juche philosophy correctly.
Having defined the essential qualities
of man for the first time in history,
the Juche philosophy has held up man as
the best qualified and most powerful
being in the world and advanced a new
idea on the world that the world is
dominated and transformed by man.
The new outlook on the world established
by the Juche philosophy does not deny
the world outlook of dialectical
materialism. The Juche philosophy
regards the world outlook of dialectical
materialism as its premise. The Juche
view of the world that the world is
dominated and transformed by man is
inconceivable separately from the
materialistic dialectical understanding
of the essence of the objective material
world and the general law of its motion.
From the idealistic view that the world
is something mysterious you cannot draw
the conclusion that man dominates the
world, and from the metaphysical view
that the world is immutable you cannot
infer that man can transform the world.
The Juche view of the world that the
world is dominated and transformed by
man can only be established when the
materialistic dialectical understanding
of the world that the world is made of
material and ceaselessly changes and
develops is recognized. In spite of a
number of limitations and immaturities
of the Marxist materialistic dialectics,
its basic principles are scientific and
valid. That is why we say that the
Juche philosophy regards materialistic
dialectics as its premise.
That the world outlook of the
materialistic dialectics is the premise
for the Juche philosophy does not mean
that the Juche philosophy has merely
inherited and developed the
materialistic dialectical understanding
of the objective material world, you
cannot draw the conclusion that man is
the master of the world and plays a
decisive role in transforming the world
simply from the proposition of
materialism that the world is made of
material and from the dialectical
principle that the world ceaselessly
changes and develops. Only on the basis
of the clarification of man’s essential
qualities which distinguish man
radically from all the other material
beings can man’s outstanding position
and role as the master of the world
capable of transforming the world be
clarified. Only on the basis of man’s
essential qualities as a social being
with independence, creativity and
consciousness as scientifically
clarified by the Juche philosophy has
the basic principle that man is the
master of the world and plays the
decisive role in transforming the world
been clarified.
By establishing the Juche outlook on
social history, the Juche view of
history, on the basis of the
man-centered philosophical principle,
the Juche philosophy has overcome the
limitations of the preceding
socio-historical view and effected a
radical change in the socio-historical
view and standpoint.
Marxist philosophy established
socio-historical view of dialectical
materialism, historical materialism,
through the application of the general
law of the development of the material
world to social history. Of course, we
do not deny the historic merit of
historical materialism. Historical
materialism made an important
contribution to defeating the
reactionary and unscientific
socio-historical view which was based on
idealism and metaphysics. In addition,
since man lies in the objective material
world and society is inseparably linked
with nature, the general law of the
development of the material world acts
on social phenomena. However, if you
overlook the social movement being
governed by its own law and apply the
general law of the development of the
material world mechanically to social
phenomena, you cannot avoid acquiring
one-sided understanding of social
history.
The social movement changes and develops
according to its own law.
The social movement is the movement of
man who dominates and transforms the
world, man transforms nature to dominate
and transform the objective material
world. By transforming nature man
creates material wealth and material
conditions for his life.
Transforming nature and creating
material wealth is the endeavour to
satisfy people’s social cooperation.
People transform society to improve and
perfect the relations of social
cooperation. It is man who transforms
both nature and society. While
transforming nature and society, man
transforms and develops himself
continuously. The domination and
transformation of the world by man are
realized after all through the
transformation of nature, society and
himself, and the popular masses are the
motive force of this undertaking. The
popular masses create all the material
and cultural wealth of society and
develop social relations.
The social movement, the driving force
of which is the popular masses, has
characteristics which are different from
those of the motion of nature. In
nature motion takes place spontaneously
through the interaction of material
elements which exist objectively,
whereas the social movement is caused
and developed by the volitional action
and role of the driving force.
Therefore,
if you apply the principles of
materialistic dialectics which explain
the general law of the development of
the material world mechanically to
social history, you cannot clarify
correctly the essence of society and the
law of social movement. The major
limitation of the materialistic
conception of history is that it failed
to correctly expound the peculiar law of
the social movement and explained the
principles of the social movement mainly
on the basis of the common character of
the motion of nature and the social
movement in that both of them are the
motion of material.
Marxist materialistic conception of
history broke down society into social
being and consciousness and attached
determining significance to social
being; it also broke down the social
structure into productive force and
production relations, foundation and
superstructure, and attached decisive
significance to material production and
economic relations. This means an
unaltered application of the principle
of materialistic dialectics to society,
the principle that the world is of
material and changes and develops in
accordance with the general law of the
motion of material. The world, viewed
by the founders of Marxism when applying
the general law governing the material
world to social history, is an integrity
of not only nature but also man and
society in that they are material
beings. If you consider man as a part
of the world, a material integrity, not
as a social being with independence,
creativity and consciousness, and apply
the general law of the movement of the
material world to social history, you
cannot avoid seeing the socio-historical
movement as a process of the history of
nature.
Of course, society, too, changes and
develops in accordance with a certain
law, not by man’s will. But the action
of law in society is fundamentally
different from that of the law of
nature. In nature the law works
spontaneously regardless of man’s
activity, but in society the law works
through man’s independent, creative and
conscious activities. Some of the laws
of society governs every society in
general irrespective of social systems,
and some of them governs a particular
society. Because all the social laws
work through man’s activity, they may
work smoothly or their actions may be
restrained or limited depending on man’s
activity.
When I say that social laws function
through man’s activity, I do not deny
the objective character of social laws
and possible spontaneity in the social
movement. If a certain socio-economic
condition is created, a social law
corresponding to it functions inevitably
and therefore it assumes an objective
character as a natural law does.
Spontaneity in the social movement is
due to a relatively low level of man’s
independence, creativity and
consciousness and to the absence of the
social system under which people can
display them to the full. With the
growth in man’s independence, creativity
and consciousness and with the
establishment of the social system which
ensures a full display of these
qualities, man will work better in
keeping with the objective laws and the
range of spontaneity will narrow.
Social development is the process of the
development of the masses’ independence,
creativity and consciousness. With the
growth in these qualities and with the
consummation of the social system
capable of meeting their requirements,
the society will develop more and more
through the purposeful and conscious
activities of the popular masses. This
means that the law peculiar to the
social movement, which changes and
develops by the volitional action and
role of the driving force, will work on
a full scale.
Although the founders of Marxism
established the materialistic
dialectical concept of social history by
applying the general law of the
development of the material world to
social history, they themselves came
across many problems in the practical
social movement, problems which could
not be resolved only by the general law
of the development of the material
world. So they attempted to overcome
the one-sidedness of the materialistic
dialectical concept of social history by
advancing some theories, for example,
that although social consciousness
emerges as the reflection of the
material and economic conditions, it
reacts on these conditions and that
although politics is defined by the
economy, it reacts on the economy.
However, the Marxist materialistic
concept of history is, in essence, a
view on social history which considers
the common character of the motion of
nature and the social movement as the
main factor. This theory was unable to
avoid the limitation of identifying the
process of social development with that
of natural history.
The fundamental difference between the
Juche philosophy and the preceding
philosophy results, in the final
analysis, from a different understanding
of man.
The Marxist philosophy defined the
essence of man as the ensemble of social
relations, but it failed to correctly
expound the characteristics of man as a
social being. The preceding theory
explained the principle of the social
movement mainly on the basis of the
general law of the development of the
material world, because it failed to
clarify the essential qualities of
social man. For the first time, the
Juche philosophy gave a perfect
elucidation of the unique qualities of
man as a social being.
As clarified in the documents of our
Party, man is a social being with
independence, creativity and
consciousness and nobody has expressed
doubt about it. However, some social
scientists maintain a wrong view in
understanding how man became a social
being with these qualities. Regarding
the question of man’s essential
characteristics as the issue of the
level of his development as a material
being, they still assert that the origin
of man; independence, creativity and
consciousness should be sought in the
diversity of the material components and
the complexity of their combination and
structure. This is, in fact, a view
regarding man’s essential qualities as
the extension of natural and biological
attributes, as their development and
consummation. When talking about man as
an organism, one can consider him in
comparison with other organisms, or
discuss the characteristics of his
biological components and their
combination and structure. However, the
man who is deliberated by the Juche
philosophy is not only a highly
developed organism but also lives and
works with independence, creativity and
consciousness which no other creatures
have acquired. The origin of man’s
essential qualities must be sought not
in the development of his features
common with those of other material
beings but in the characteristics unique
to him. Man has acquired independence,
creativity and consciousness, because he
is a social being who forms a social
collective and lives and works in a
social relationship. These qualities of
man are social attributes which are
formed and developed through the
socio-historical process of his working
in the social relationship. Of course,
these qualities of his would be
inconceivable without his highly
developed organic body, man can be said
to be the highest product of evolution
and the most developed material being.
However, if man had not formed a social
collective and had not lived and worked
in the social relationship, he could not
have developed as an independent,
creative and conscious being no matter
how developed his organic body may be.
Without physical life man cannot have
social and political integrity.
However, it is not man’s physical life
itself that gives birth to his social
and political integrity. Likewise,
without his developed organic body his
independence, creativity and
consciousness would be inconceivable,
but his biological characteristics
themselves do not produce his social
attributes. Man’s social attributes can
take shape and develop only through the
process of his emergence and development
as a social being, in other words,
through the process of the historical
development of his social activity and
his social relationship. The history of
social development is the history of
development of man’s independence,
creativity and consciousness. This
means that man’ independence, creativity
and consciousness are social attributes
which are formed and developed socially
and historically. Therefore, the
philosophical consideration of man must
start from the fact that man is a social
being.
Nevertheless, some of our social
scientists argue about the material
components and their combination and
structure, and relate them to man’s
essential qualities, preaching that the
biological factors constitute the major
content of the Juche philosophy. Their
argument is a deviation that explains
the Juche philosophy within the
framework of Marxist dialectical
materialism. It is only an attempt to
justify the wrong evolutionary view
which regards man’s essential qualities
as the development and consummation of
biological attributes.
Regarding man’s essential qualities, it
is important to have a correct
understanding of the social being. The
founders of Marxism, while raising the
question of man’s essence in social
relationship, used the phrase social
being as a concept meaning the material
conditions and economic relations of
social life which exist objectively and
are reflected on social consciousness.
Since they regarded man as a component
of productive forces, as the ensemble of
social relations, the phrase social
being they used implied man as well.
However, they did not use it as one
having the particular meaning that
defines man’s essential qualities.
Systematizing the Juche philosophy, we
used the term social being as one having
the particular meaning that defines
man’s essential qualities. In the
theory of the Juche philosophy man is
the only social being in the world.
Some social scientists, however, still
insist that social wealth and social
relations should also be included in the
social being, obscuring the difference
between man and social wealth and social
relations. Social wealth and social
relations are created and developed by
man. Therefore, they cannot be included
together in the concept that defines
man’s essential qualities. When
referring to the Marxist philosophy, the
phrase social being can, of course, be
used as the founders of Marxism meant.
But, if we understand the term social
being in its conventional meaning when
referring to the Juche philosophy, it
will result in obscuring their
understanding of man’s essential
qualities. The Juche philosophy is a
new philosophy which has its own system
and content, so its categories must not
be understood in the conventional
meaning.
One of the main reasons why these social
scientists have committed a deviation in
explaining and propagating the Juche
philosophy is that they have not studied
philosophical problems from the point of
view of the requirement of revolutionary
practice.
Theory must be based on practice and
serve practice. A theory divorced from
practice cannot correctly elucidate
truth and is of no use.
The great leader Comrade Kim Il Sung
always studied philosophical problems
proceeding from the demand of
revolutionary practice and evolved the
Juche philosophy in the course of giving
scientific answers to urgent ideological
and theoretical problems arising in
revolutionary practice. Our Party has
generalized the rich and profound
experiences of revolutionary practice,
systematized the Juche philosophy in a
comprehensive way and developed it in
depth.
Revolutionary practice is a struggle to
realize independence for the popular
masses and it is the masses who carry
out the struggle.
Therefore,
it is important in the study of
philosophy to reflect the demands and
aspirations of the popular masses
correctly, evolve the theory by
generalizing their experiences of
struggle and make it the theory of the
popular masses themselves. In the
exploitative society the reactionary
ruling class makes use of philosophy for
defending and rationalizing their
reactionary ruling system, trying to
make it the monopoly of the philosophers
who act as spokesmen in their
interests. They consider the popular
masses to be ignorant people who have
nothing to do with philosophy.
With a viewpoint and attitude that the
popular masses are the masters of
everything and the wisest people, our
Party has evolved the Juche philosophy
by reflecting their demand and
aspirations and generalizing their
struggle experiences, further developed
it in depth and made it their weapon of
struggle. This is the reason why the
Juche philosophy is an absolute truth
which meets the people’s desire for and
aspirations to independence and a
popular philosophy which the masses
easily understand and regard as their
own weapon of struggle.
However, some of the social scientists
are arguing about the questions which
are of little practical significance in
illuminating the road of shaping the
destiny of the popular masses. We study
philosophy essentially for the purpose
of clarifying the principles and
methodology by which to develop the
society and shape the destiny of the
popular masses. The development of
society is guided by politics and it is
none other than the Juche philosophy
which clarifies the basic principles of
politics which lead social development
in the most straight way. In this
sense, the Juche philosophy can be
called a political philosophy.
Some social scientists say that they
have explained the Juche philosophy as a
philosophy which developed the
dialectical materialism of Marxism in
order to present the Juche idea to suit
the characteristic of the external
world. We must give a clear
understanding of the Juche philosophy as
a new revolutionary philosophy, not as a
mere development of the preceding
philosophy. It is a mistake to explain
the Juche philosophy within the
framework of the preceding philosophy on
the grounds that it is presented to suit
the characteristic of the external world
or to disseminate the Juche philosophy
with ideas which do not accord with the
fundamental principle of the Juche
philosophy. Moreover, why should we
argue about questions which are of no
political importance and hardly of any
theoretical practical significance,
shutting eyes to the demand of reality
in the international arena, when
internationally we have many theoretical
and practical questions which urgently
await correct answers to be given on
the basis of the principles of the Juche
philosophy? In presenting the Juche
idea to the external world, we must
explain correctly in relation to actual
problems that the Juche philosophy is
thoroughly an original philosophy and a
new revolutionary philosophy. We must
get rid of such a deviation not only in
external dissemination but also in the
research, study and education on the
Juche philosophy.
The Juche philosophy is a revolutionary
philosophy and political philosophy of
our Party which illuminates the
philosophical basis of the Juche idea
and fundamental principles of the
revolution. How to approach the Juche
philosophy does not merely concern
philosophical theories, but is related
to the viewpoint and attitude towards
the Party’s ideology. We must accept
the Party’s ideology as the absolute
truth, defend it resolutely and keep it
as a revolutionary conviction, and thus
understand, interpret and propagate the
Juche philosophy correctly.
We must feel a great pride and
confidence in having such a great
political philosophy as the Juche
philosophy, deeply understand its
principles and apply them fully to the
practical activities of the revolution
and construction. We must analyse and
judge all the social phenomena
thoroughly on the basis of the
principles of the Juche philosophy and
dynamically accelerate the revolution
and construction by uniting the popular
masses solidly around the Party and
enhancing the role of the motive force
as the Juche philosophy requires.
Our scientists and people must study and
follow the Juche philosophy, but they
must also know the philosophical ideas
of Marxism-Leninism. The social
scientists in particular must be well
acquainted with the preceding
philosophy, it is important to
distinguish limitations and immaturity
of the preceding philosophy along with
its merits.
In addition, we must strictly guard
against all heterogeneous trends of
philosophy which are contrary to the
Juche philosophy and ensure the purity
of the Juche philosophy. The Juche
philosophy is the most advantageous and
viable philosophy which reflects the
demand of the revolutionary practice and
the truthfulness and validity of which
have been proved by revolutionary
practice. The fact that the Juche
philosophy is attracting more attention
on the international arena and the
followers of the Juche idea are
increasing in number clearly
demonstrates that the Juche philosophy
gives absolutely correct answers to the
questions of revolutionary practice.
Our social scientists must have an
unshakable conviction of the scientific
accuracy, truthfulness, originality and
superiority of the Juche philosophy and
analyse and judge all the philosophical
theories with the Juche philosophy as a
guideline, thus preventing infiltration
of any heterogeneous trend of philosophy
into the Juche philosophy.
All the social scientists must study the
Juche philosophy in depth and breadth
and propagate it in line with the
Party’s intention and, by doing so,
exalt its greatness and further increase
its attraction.
|
 | Ce site est l'organe officiel de publication des oeuvres idéologiques et pratiques du Comité Central du Parti du Travail de Corée et de ses Dirigeants par le Comité Suisse-Corée, Rodong Sinmun et l'ambassade de la République Populaire Démocratique de Corée |