How did the Juche idea answer the fundamental question of philosophy?

General Secretary Kim Jong Il said.

“The Juche idea raised the fundamental question of philosophy by regarding man as the main factor, and elucidated the philosophical principle that man is the master of everything and decides everything.”

The Juche idea elucidated the philosophical principle that man is the master of everything and decides everything, thus giving the most correct answer to the fundamental question of the Juche philosophy.

Man is the master of everything and decides everything. This is the basic principle of the Juche philosophy.

Generally the principle clarifies the essence of the things and phenomena and the reason of its change and development. There are some principles in all sciences, and various principles are dealt with in philosophy. The principle which is the basis of these various principles is called the basic principle of philosophy.

On the basis of the principle that man is the master of everything and decides everything, the whole systems and contents of the Juche philosophy are evolved. So this principle is called the fundamental principle of the Juche philosophy.

The fundamental question of Juche philosophy that man is the master of everything and decides everything gives an answer to the relations between the world and man in two aspects.

One aspect is that man is the master of everything and the other is that man decides everything.

Now let’s study these two aspects.

First of all, man is the master of everything.

People use the word “master” in various meanings in daily life.

Master means the owner of things and the man who is responsible for a certain things. Also the slaves and servants call their employers masters.

The word “master” has a broad meaning that expresses relations of social life including the relations of ownership and social position.

But the word “master” is not a general word when the Juche idea claims that man is the master of everything.

The master in the Juche idea is the philosophical concept that expresses man’s position in the relations between man and the surrounding world, man’s position as the master of the world.

What does it mean that man is the master of everything?

General Secretary Kim Jong Il said.

“That man is the master of everything means that he is the master of the world and his own destiny; that man decides everything means that he plays the decisive role in transforming the world and in shaping his destiny.”

That man is the master of everything means that he is the master of the world and his own destiny. This clarifies the position of man as the master of the world and his own destiny.

In other words, man lives not to be bound to the surrounding world but dominates the world according to his independent requirement and will.

There are diversified material beings in the world. There are living and nonliving matters. Putting aside the nonliving matters, the living matters such as animals and plants are uncountable. There are many material beings in the world but none of them lives dominating the surrounding world.

Even a lion, the “king” in the meadow and a shark, the “wild leader” in the sea are not beings who live dominating the world. Although the lion eats other animals freely, he is only an existence living by adapting himself to the given environments but not the one who dominates the world. In other words, as the lion can not live in the water and the shark can not live on the land, the developed animals in the natural world are only beings that live by adapting themselves to the given environments.

Since man is the highest product in the development of the material world, he is not subordinated by the world but dominates the world according to his will and requirements. Man alone in the world lives while dominating the world according to his will and requirements.

Man’s position as a master of the world has ceaselessly developed through the historical course. Man can not dominate the whole world at once in some stages of the historical development. People in every generation have a certain limit in the spheres of dominating the world. Man dominates the world through the struggle that continues generation by generation. Man lives not to be bound to the world but ceaselessly expands the sphere of domination of the world according to his will and requirements. In this sense, man is the master of the world.

That man is the master of the world means that he is the master of his own destiny. So the objective world that is dominated by man can not be the master of his own destiny. The master of man’s destiny is the only man himself.

Next, man decides everything.

That man is the master of everything shows the man’s position in the world whereas that man decides everything shows the man’s role in the change and development of the world.

What does it mean that man decides everything?

It means, in a word, that man plays the decisive role in transforming the world and in shaping his destiny.

Several factors are acting in developing things and phenomena. But their role is different. There are factors that effect the most in the development of things and phenomena and the factors that effect less.

So is the case with the development and transforming of the world.

There should be some necessary material and technical means in order to transform the nature. Excavators, cranes, steel materials and cements are needed to reform the tideland. The primitive men needed even primitive tools to catch animals and collect fruits, much more so in the project of transforming the great nature. Damming up the sea and widening the land can not be done by bare hands. This shows that the material and technical means are necessary in transforming the nature.

Thus the material and technical means play an important role in transforming the nature. But it is the man that plays the decisive role in transforming the world. However big role the material and technical means play, it is incomparable to man’s role.

Today automation and no-man control in the factory are realized with the development of science, technology and the up-to-date technical means such as computers and robots. Not a few bourgeois employed scholars insisted the theories that people lost their positions and became powerless beings on the appearance of such modern means. Many works done manually are done with the help of the modern technical means, but how can it be the reason why the people became incompetent beings?

The modern technical means, indeed, show the inexhaustible creative power of the people and man’s decisive role in transforming the world.

Computers control production process automatically and robots construct the motor cars in a moment. But this is only possible by man’s commands, namely program.

Thus, no matter how many means of up-to-date technology are mobilized, man only plays the decisive role in transforming the world.

It is man who decides the action of the material means in transforming the world and the display of their great strength.

Man has ceaselessly transformed and developed the surrounding world onto a higher plane with his strength and wisdom in the historical course of transforming the world. In this sense, man plays the decisive role in transforming the world. That man plays the decisive role in transforming the world means that he plays the decisive role in shaping his destiny. The destiny of man is shaped in the course of transforming the world, and man plays the decisive role in transforming the world. Therefore, there are no other beings that can decide man’s destiny in the world. His destiny is decided by how actively man transforms the world. The fundamental principle of the Juche philosophy that man is the master of everything and decides everything is the most scientific and revolutionary philosophical principle.

The fundamental principle of the Juche philosophy is the most scientific philosophical principle that correctly reflects the real world where man lives.

Man is the only dominator in the real world, and the world is more and more transformed by man. In the process of interaction between man and the world, there are active actions that man gives to the world and also the influence that the world exerts on the man. But the main thing is the positive actions that man gives to the world. By man’s positive actions, the unfavorable influence that the world exerts on the man is surmounted and favorable conditions and environments are made, so the world is transformed and developed by man.

As the only dominator and transformer of the world, man holds the position as the master of the world and plays the decisive role in the development of the world, and his position and role is strengthened day after day. Therefore, the fundamental principle of the Juche philosophy that man is the master of everything and decides everything correctly reflects the real world in which position and role of man, the master of the world, develop with the advance of history.

The fundamental principle of the Juche philosophy is the revolutionary philosophical principle that directly shows the way of shaping the destiny of the man.

In the past, destiny is understood as the same word as “fatality” or “fortune”. As a result, it was not regarded as the subject-matter of science but has been discussed only in the superstition and religious faith.

The Juche idea defines the destiny as people’s status, life and death, and prospect and raised it the most important question of human beings from the starting point of the philosophy and gives a scientific answer to the question.

The fundamental principle of the Juche philosophy is the principle that places man at the center, so it consists in the viewpoint on the destiny of the man and clarifies the basic method of shaping man’s destiny. Man should shape his destiny independently and creatively. This is the basic method of shaping the destiny of man that is clarified by the fundamental principle of the Juche philosophy.

The fundamental principle of the Juche philosophy clarifies the viewpoint on the destiny of the man and the basic method of shaping the destiny of man to open up a broad way for shaping man’s destiny. Here is the reason why the fundamental principle of the Juche philosophy became the revolutionary principle that genuinely serves the popular masses.

Human history is the history of shaping the destiny of the popular masses.

By conquering the nature with their creative labor and transforming the society with ceaselessly revolutionary struggle, the people will shape their destiny successfully.