Tao Delin

Tao Delin

Born in October 1931 in Wuhan City of Hubei Province, Tao Delin graduated from the Economics Department of Wuhan University in1953 and stayed as an academic research assistant to Li Da (a Marxist philosopher), the then President of Wuhan University. He published a paper to criticize the former Soviet Union book A Brief Lexicon of Philosophical Terms in Philosophical Studies in1956, attracting worldwide attention, and served as the main writer for the textbooks on Marxist philosophy, a mission entrusted to Li Da by Chairman Mao Zedong in 1961.

He actively engaged in the theoretical battle against “The Two Whatevers" (the statement that we will resolutely uphold whatever policy decisions Chairman Mao made, and unswervingly follow whatever instructions Chairman Mao gave), participated in the great debate over truth criterion, and published a series of influential papers represented by “Several Question on Truth Criterion” in Philosophical Studies and Guangming Daily and other journals in 1978. Besides, he was commissioned by People’s Publishing House to revise Outline of Materialist Dialectics, a book edited by Li Da during his lifetime, co-edited and published the four-volume Li Da Anthology, and served as the deputy editor of the parts of Overview and Dialectical Materialism of the volume on philosophy in Encyclopedia of China in the same year. He received the title of “Yong & Middle-aged Expert with Outstanding Contributions to China” by the Ministry of Personnel in 1984; created the doctoral program and the national key disciplineof Marxist Philosophy at Wuhan University; was regarded by peer experts as “one of the most cutting-edge and influential senior scholars in the research on Marxism". From 1985 onward, he served as a member and convener of the Philosophy Discipline Appraisal Group and the Academic Degrees Committee of the State Council, the Director of the Steering Committee of the National Philosophy Teaching in HEIs, the Executive Director of China Marxism Research Foundation, the Deputy Director of Deng Xiaoping Theory Research Center, Ministry of Education, the Vice President of Chinese Society of Academic Degrees and Graduate Education, the President of Hubei Federation of Social Sciences, a committee member of the Social Science Committee, Ministry of Education, a principal member of the Philosophy Textbook Group of the Marxism Theory Research and Building Project, an International adviser to the Asia Pacific Research Center of Iowa University (U.S.). His paper Logic Proof and Truth Criterion won the 1^stPrize in the National Humanities and Social Sciences Research Achievement in HEIs Award,Adhering to and Developing Marxism in Practice, with him as the first author, won the Five Top Projects Award by the Central Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee, and the book The Theory of Social Stability under his chief editorship won the National Book Award.