Kim Il Sung does not criticise Marx for being materialist, he criticises materialism for not being humanist enough. Juche has an element of marxist humanism.
"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 the 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 about the surrounding world which restrict 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.
I have not read Hegel and I have a very rough understanding of Hegelianism so I can't comment on that. But I don't see why Juche is in a way "worse" than the humanism in Marx himself, like his theory of alienation and the theses on Feuerbach. Kim Jong Il was to me very clearly inspired on the latter when he wrote that passage. Things like:
I The chief defect of all hitherto existing materialism – that of Feuerbach included – is that the thing, reality, sensuousness, is conceived only in the form of the object or of contemplation, but not as sensuous human activity, practice, not subjectively. Hence, in contradistinction to materialism, the active side was developed abstractly by idealism – which, of course, does not know real, sensuous activity as such. […]
X The standpoint of the old materialism is civil society; the standpoint of the new is human society, or social humanity.
XI The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways; the point is to change it.
would fit just fine in Kim's passage.
Maybe you're too quick to dismiss a philosophy that emerged in an actually existing socialist society. Once we're rid of the class struggle that colours the philosophy of today, what do you imagine the philosophy of tomorrow will focus on, if not on the struggle with the environment and with ourselves to build a better world?
I don't dismiss it, and yes, the philosophy of some FALGSC would definitely focus on the agency of a liberated humanity, given that it is largely post-scarcity.
But I think that Juche arises from it's material conditions (the focus on "age of independence" for instance, is clearly a response to the DPRK's forced Autarky, since we clearly do not live in that age) and saying that these material conditions are now secondary, even internally, is not correct. Necessary, maybe, in ensuring the survival of Socialism in the DPRK, but not correct in any external sense.
Much of my criticism is not that it isn't useful (if it was moderated somewhat into merely emphasising the effect the Cultural Superstructure can have in turn on material conditions I would be largely in agreement), but that it is in many cases a philosophy that tries to merge a desire to go beyond the current ongoing material class contradictions with the unfortunate reality that those contradictions are largely why the DPRK is under siege socialism.
So while I might find some aspects of Juche excellent tools for resolving post-capitalist contradictions in high stages of Socialism, and I admire how it has allowed a Socialist state to survive in extremely adverse conditions, I don't find it very useful as a toolset for Socialist development in the Imperial Core, or for the initial stages of a global Socialist society.
I think this is literally the first and only time I've ever seen anybody quote Kim Jong Il. Like, for all the discourse surrounding the DPRK you would think that quotations would be more common. I've also never seen quotations from Kim Il Sung or Kim Jong Un
I'm fastidious about primary sources, but yes, the level of discourse about the DPRK is generally so low that there barely is any reason to quote their leaders. Most of the discourse is concerned about the poverty, or started by people that actually believe that they do inter-generational punishment or that Kim killed his own girlfriend and drowned a general in a tank full of piranhas. In that case talking about the Korean War or simply pointing out the absurdity is enough.
The only places I remember seeing informed discussion about the DPRK is at a KFA event hosted by a local party, and in Russian forums, but online and in English it's never the case. Maybe occasionally on revleft and bunkerchan.
Kim Il Sung does not criticise Marx for being materialist, he criticises materialism for not being humanist enough. Juche has an element of marxist humanism.
--- Kim Jong Il
This is a great passage by Kim Jong Il, but I can't help but feel this is a return to Hegelianism with the Mass Line replacing the Zeitgeist.
I have not read Hegel and I have a very rough understanding of Hegelianism so I can't comment on that. But I don't see why Juche is in a way "worse" than the humanism in Marx himself, like his theory of alienation and the theses on Feuerbach. Kim Jong Il was to me very clearly inspired on the latter when he wrote that passage. Things like:
would fit just fine in Kim's passage.
Maybe you're too quick to dismiss a philosophy that emerged in an actually existing socialist society. Once we're rid of the class struggle that colours the philosophy of today, what do you imagine the philosophy of tomorrow will focus on, if not on the struggle with the environment and with ourselves to build a better world?
I don't dismiss it, and yes, the philosophy of some FALGSC would definitely focus on the agency of a liberated humanity, given that it is largely post-scarcity.
But I think that Juche arises from it's material conditions (the focus on "age of independence" for instance, is clearly a response to the DPRK's forced Autarky, since we clearly do not live in that age) and saying that these material conditions are now secondary, even internally, is not correct. Necessary, maybe, in ensuring the survival of Socialism in the DPRK, but not correct in any external sense.
Much of my criticism is not that it isn't useful (if it was moderated somewhat into merely emphasising the effect the Cultural Superstructure can have in turn on material conditions I would be largely in agreement), but that it is in many cases a philosophy that tries to merge a desire to go beyond the current ongoing material class contradictions with the unfortunate reality that those contradictions are largely why the DPRK is under siege socialism.
So while I might find some aspects of Juche excellent tools for resolving post-capitalist contradictions in high stages of Socialism, and I admire how it has allowed a Socialist state to survive in extremely adverse conditions, I don't find it very useful as a toolset for Socialist development in the Imperial Core, or for the initial stages of a global Socialist society.
I think this is literally the first and only time I've ever seen anybody quote Kim Jong Il. Like, for all the discourse surrounding the DPRK you would think that quotations would be more common. I've also never seen quotations from Kim Il Sung or Kim Jong Un
I'm fastidious about primary sources, but yes, the level of discourse about the DPRK is generally so low that there barely is any reason to quote their leaders. Most of the discourse is concerned about the poverty, or started by people that actually believe that they do inter-generational punishment or that Kim killed his own girlfriend and drowned a general in a tank full of piranhas. In that case talking about the Korean War or simply pointing out the absurdity is enough.
The only places I remember seeing informed discussion about the DPRK is at a KFA event hosted by a local party, and in Russian forums, but online and in English it's never the case. Maybe occasionally on revleft and bunkerchan.