Kim Jong-il: The first philosophy of the working class was created by Marx. His philosophy is a critical inheritance and development of preceding philosophies. By discarding what was unscientific and reactionary in the preceding materialism and dialectics and by inheriting and developing a reasonable core, Marx created dialectical materialism. By applying it to social history, he clarified historical materialism. He directed his main efforts to critically examining the existing philosophical theories so as to free the working class, which was making a fresh appearance on the historical stage, from the outdated and reactionary outlook on the world. He gave scientific answers to the questions of correlation between matter and consciousness and between being and thinking, which until then had yet to be resolved despite repeated debates; on this basis he developed his philosophical theory. https://wordsmith.social/protestation/quotes#quote9449