Generally the fundamental question of philosophy is the most basic and start-point question to be answered before any other questions.

In other words, the philosophy contributes to defining the essential method of shaping the destiny of man by giving the world outlook, the integral system of the viewpoint and attitude, stand on the world as a whole instead of giving the viewpoint and attitude to some specific things and phenomena like in other sciences. And the basic question, the start-point question that can evolve all philosophical problems logically is the very fundamental question of the philosophy. Therefore all systems and width and depth of the contents, its character and roles depend on how to raise and answer the fundamental question of philosophy.

It is a prerequisite for the evolution of scientific and revolutionary world outlook to correctly raise the fundamental question of philosophy.

What did the Juche idea raise as a fundamental question of philosophy?

General Secretary Kim Jong Il said.

“Since the question of the world’s origin had been made clear by the materialistic viewpoint, the Juche idea raised a new problem concerning the position and role of man in the world as the basic question of philosophy and gave an answer to the question of who is the master of the world.”

The fundamental question of philosophy that is raised by the Juche idea is the question of the position and role of man in the world.

The relation between the world and man is very complex and diverse. But the basic question in the relation of the world and man is the question of position and role of man in the world.

In other words, this question is the one that whether man dominates the world or is dominated by the world and the question of what role man plays in transforming and developing the world, so it is the fundamental question of philosophy raised centering on man.

Let’s study scientific character of the fundamental question of the Juche philosophy that was raised with man in a center.

The fundamental question of Juche philosophy becomes a new thesis of the basic question of philosophy. That is because it implements the requirement of the law of the development of the world outlook of humankind.

Philosophy has thousands of years of history and many philosophical schools and well-known philosophers had issued various philosophical viewpoints in the long history.

What did such many philosophical schools and philosophers regard or have to regard as the basic question of philosophy?

General Secretary Kim Jong Il said.

“In the past the relations between substance and consciousness, between being and thinking were regarded as the basic question of philosophy.”

Multifarious things exist in the world where we live. It is called the material world or matters in philosophical term. People feel various things with their sense organs like eyes, nose, ears, tongue and skin, and find out characters and value by synthesis, analysis and reasoning of the materials by their feelings, making this or that concepts. It is called consciousness or thinking phenomena in philosophical term.

In the past the relations between matter and consciousness, between being and thinking were regarded as the basic question of philosophy. This is the question of which is prior, matter or consciousness.

Here materialism means that matter is primary and consciousness comes from the matter, whereas the idealism means that consciousness is primary and matter comes from consciousness. The previous philosophies were classified into materialism which analyzed the world materialistically and idealism which analyzed the world idealistically according to the understanding of the relationship between matter and consciousness.

Since the beginning of the philosophical thinking of humankind, thousands of years long history of the philosophical development is the history of struggle of these two conflicting philosophical world outlooks.

It is impossible to say all about the development of the two trends of philosophy, the materialism and idealism, but what is obvious is that the relations between matter and consciousness, being and thinking were regarded as the fundamental question of philosophy and the controversy that continued for thousands of years finally ended in the 40s of the 19th century after the emergence of the Marxist materialistic dialectical world outlook.

Why did the previous philosophies have to regard the relations between matter and consciousness, being and thinking as the fundamental question of philosophy?

Here is a reason.

Once upon a time the people were seized by unscientific illusion for the lack of understanding about the circumstances.

For example, the people in primitive age did not understand the reason why it was lightening and thundering and why the moon sometimes looked round or crescent. So they thought all phenomena in the surroundings were occurred by the miracle of supernatural “being” like Jupiter.

But the people, through the constant struggle to conquer nature and shape their destiny, revealed the secrets of nature and freed from the mystic illusion, and in this course, they could have a correct understanding of the surrounding world first. Without understanding the surrounding world which restricts them and about the origin of the world, they can not understand or shape their destiny. The people raised the question of the origin of the world, the question of mutual relation between matter and consciousness as the basic question of philosophy from the early period of the development of the philosophical world outlook and the question was scientifically answered by the Marxist materialistic dialectical world outlook.

But it was not the end of the development of the world outlook.

The question of the origin of the world is answered scientifically. Under this condition the people are greatly interested in having a correct understanding about themselves, especially about the man’s position and role in the world. In other words, under the conditions in which the question of the origin of the world was answered materialistically, it is the lawful requirements of the development of the world outlook to clarify the man’s position and role in the world.

The Juche Idea raised man’s position and role in the world as the fundamental question of philosophy by applying such lawful requirements, thus newly renovating the fundamental question of the past philosophies.

Next, the scientific character of the fundamental question of the Juche philosophy is that it correctly reflects the requirement of our age, the era of independence.

A new age requires a new outlook on the world and the development of the age is accompanied by the development of the world outlook.

But as mentioned in the previous lessons, our age is the new age of history, the age of independence in which the people’s struggle for independence took place in a more broad and diversified way in the worldwide arena than ever before.

A great turn was made in the people’s position and role in our age, the age of independence.

Accordingly, the age of independence requires the world outlook that enables the popular masses to shape their destiny independently and creatively with a high awareness that they are masters of their destiny.

What is important in establishing the world outlook is the question of man’s position and role in the world.

Only when this question is raised and answered, is it possible to give a correct philosophical answer to the important and principled questions in the revolutionary practice of our times, the questions such as whether the popular masses could shape their destiny with their own strength or not, and whether the people in each country could achieve the liberation and build a new, free and prosperous society with their own strength or not.

The Juche idea reflected such requirement of the era of independence and newly raised the question of man’s position and role in the world as the fundamental question of philosophy and answered it, thus brilliantly carrying out the task that the philosophy should fulfill.

Here is another important reason why the fundamental question of philosophy was newly raised and answered by the Juche idea.

The scientific character of the fundamental question of philosophy newly raised by the Juche idea is that it is the question which is totally conformed with the essence and basic mission of philosophy.

As stated previously, the philosophy is the doctrine with the mission to show the way of shaping the human destiny by giving the world outlook.

Therefore, only when the fundamental question of philosophy is conformed to the essence and mission of such philosophy, can it be the scientific one and have the significance as the fundamental question of philosophy.

First of all, the fundamental question of philosophy clarified by the Juche Idea is the question of the world outlook suitable to the essence of philosophy that should clarify the world outlook.

The fundamental question of philosophy raised by the Juche idea is not a question of purely human being or the question of the individual objects in the surrounding world. This question is the one of relations between man and the world, the question on the man’s position and role in the world.

Only when this question is answered, was it possible to solve the view on man’s position and role in the world, the view and attitude and stand on the world placing man at the center.

This proves that the fundamental question of philosophy clarified by Juche idea is the question suitable to the essence of the philosophy.

Next, the fundamental question of philosophy clarified by the Juche idea is the question on the world outlook suitable to the mission of philosophy that should contribute to the shaping destiny of human being.

A man lives and develops in the world, and the destiny of man is shaped in the relations with the world. Therefore, the question of the relations between the world and man and between man’s position and role in the world should be raised and answered in order to show the way of shaping man’s destiny. Only then, is it possible to answer the question whether man lives and develops as a master of his own destiny or not, whether man is able to shape his destiny or not.

The fundamental question of philosophy clarified by the Juche idea becomes the question suitable to the mission of philosophy.

As seen above, the Juche idea raised the question of the man’s position and role in the world as the fundamental question of philosophy and thus newly renovated the fundamental question of the world outlook.

The question of the man’s position and role in the world which was newly raised by the Juche idea is the fundamental question of philosophy and a new starting point of the philosophical thinking.