What Meaning Does the Term ‘Subject’ Contain?

The term ‘subject’ in the Juche idea means a performer and a decisive factor that causes and pushes ahead with the transformation and development of the world and the social progress.

Leader Kim Jong Il said that it is important to clarify that the term subject in the Juche idea has a new content, while recognizing its commonness with the term subject in the preceding classics.

The term subject was used in the past in different meanings. It meant the spiritual entity as the creator of all matters and phenomena or the man as the performer of cognition, or the matter as the performer of all movement.

Of course, the Marxist philosophy considered man as the subject of cognition and practice. But this was the definition based on the understanding that the subject was the performer of all movement and man was also a performer of movement. In the long run, we can see that the subject is not only man but also the performer of movement as a whole including man in the Marxist philosophy.

However, the term subject in the Juche idea does not mean the performer of the movement as a whole. But it means the master who dominates the whole course of transformation and development of the world and the social progress and the decisive factor that directly promotes them and controls actions of all other elements. It is none other than man, the popular masses. In other words, the subject (Juche) in the Juche idea means man, the popular masses, as the social being with independence, creativity and consciousness.

The term subject (Juche) is widely used in defining man’s attitude and stand like maintaining the Juche-oriented stand and Juche character and establishing Juche and in characterizing ideology and theory like the Juche idea, Juche philosophy and the revolutionary theory of Juche. Maintaining Juche-oriented stand and establishing Juche mean man’s attitude and stand and the Juche idea and Juche philosophy mean the ideology and theory that regards man, the popular masses, as the master of the world and the decisive factor that transforms the world.

The term Juche in the Juche idea is used in various meanings. In the long run, this term means the performer in transforming and developing the world and social progress and man, the popular masses, who actively causes and pushes ahead with the social movement.