Abstract

In early May 1980 I said a few words at a conference of Peking theoretical circles sponsored by Guangming Daily, and I published them on May 12 under the title of "The Objective of Practice Is the Standard for Evaluating its Success." This address drew a variety of comments—first, Comrade Li Min's article in Guangming Daily of August 7, 1980, "Is the Objective of Practice the Standard for Evaluating its Success?" followed by Comrade Ma Ming's "The Standard for Testing Truth Is Neither its Objective nor Utility," in Philosophical Studies 8 . All this happened some months ago, but I have only now found time to reply. I don't consider it really too late to reply, especially as the debate also involves a problem that has just begun to receive attention: the problem of man