Scientists who study physics, chemistry and mathematics always talk about philosophy and humanities in passing, which is also a distinctive feature of this era.

Science itself originated from philosophy, and the world at this time was just beginning to be rationally recognized, and people had not yet discovered the infinite mysteries and boundlessness of these science and engineering disciplines, and in such an era of alternation between the old and the new, an era in which experience and verification would replace speculation and taking it for granted, and the emergence of such seemingly unprofessional people became a matter of course in this era.

At best, it was a time when top scholars tried to be all-rounders, until one day they discovered that the world was far more magnificent and mysterious than they had ever imagined, and that it took decades to delve into the foundations of their predecessors to become the top of a discipline.

The same is true of this scholar who wants to try to overturn some of Jian Chen's theories.

After completing the plant respiration experiment, the scholar had become a rising star in the capital's related disciplines, a shining star in the advances in chemistry, agronomy and mathematics that had emerged since Jian Chen's rise to prominence at the Academy many years earlier.

Whether this person is for fame, or is inconsistent with Chen Jian's worldview, or for some other reason, this is something that Chen Jian does not care about, and it is not impossible for him to criticize it.

But he must fight back for this matter, no matter what the reason is, he must fight back, and he must also use this opportunity to strengthen his position as a scholar.

He knows his own strengths, but he believes in the wisdom of the sages of the other world that he knows, so being a scholar can save the basic theory of this world from many detours.

In one, this matter involves a problem of worldview, and once this matter cannot be solved, there will be a hole in the foundation of the worldview, which will be difficult to repair.

Under the premise of the primacy of matter, there is no need to make human nature and morality a pre-existent, immutable, fixed and mathematically like something that has existed since the birth of man.

A god with a personality or something similar to a god has a fixed human nature, which is something that can be deduced, but Chen Jian does not believe in this.

Therefore, even if the first two volumes of Lin Xi's book led to the word socialism, and even if Lan Qi's book caused great social repercussions, Chen Jian was most concerned and vigilant about this matter.

This is an article he saw in Mincheng after returning to China, and he was brewing this matter at that time, and he originally wanted to continue to delay it, but now it seems that this matter can no longer be pretended not to be heard.

The solution to a similar problem in the normal world is the synthesis of urea. However, the problems that can be solved on the normal world line in this world are difficult to solve at this time and are easy to be criticized and attacked.

Because, ammonium cyanide can't be made at this time, not that there is none, but it can't be made at this time with the most basic things that won't be caught by people, so even if this experiment is replicated, it is still possible to be attacked and think that ammonium cyanide is also a thing that can only appear through life transformation.

This is like using starch to make wine, since starch and wine are both things that must be transformed into life before they can appear, this experiment does not show that the insurmountable gap between inanimate and living things does not exist.

For Jian Chen, this matter that had to be solved also aroused the interest of many people in the capital, who were full of curiosity and concern about this matter.

This is not the first time that Jian Chen has been questioned since he became famous in the Academy, but he will immediately refute the previous doubts, and can use many strange or novel things to refute the other party to the point of irrefutable.

This kind of position, which has been built by the wisdom of his predecessors, has also helped Chen Jian to be trusted and believed in many of the things he said, which can be said to be not only a reputation, but also a reflection of the gold content of his words. If he hadn't had the prestige he had built up before, he wouldn't have been able to catalyze a lot of things so easily.

Once this myth is shattered, it is predictable that those who were hesitant will immediately launch round after round of attacks, and the problem will soon go from science and engineering mathematics to humanities.

And now, relying on the interdisciplinary nature of the times and the reputation he established before, he is comfortable in many things, and can use this intangible capital to leverage many things that have nothing to do with it.

So, in either way, he had to respond to the explanation of the matter. And many people in the capital also set their eyes on this matter, although they knew very well that even if that person was right, it could only prove that Chen Jian's theories were problematic but by no means completely wrong, but the collapse of the hundred-mile embankment in the anthill may become a great turning point.

After the flowers are like flowers, it is a lonely end, as it has always been.

And Chen Jian, who has completed the round-the-world voyage and the foundation laying of several disciplines in the Academy Palace, is it like a flower? Or is it just a new chirp of a chick with a earth-shattering chirp in the back?

After a brief silence, Jian Chen reacted on public channels, and almost all newspapers and pamphlets related to it in the capital were prominently published.

During the time when Chen Jian went to sea, there were many people who opposed Chen Jian and questioned it, but those young people who believed in Chen Jian refuted them one by one, and Chen Jian didn't say a word after he came back, and he didn't take it seriously at all.

At this time, no matter who wins or loses, once Jian Chen reacts in public channels, it means that the seriousness of this matter is enough to attract Jian Chen's attention.

Those who are watching the excitement and do not know the specifics are excited, and this public reaction means the beginning of a polemic, and once a polemic begins, especially one that can be summarized and deduced logically, there is often only one winner.

Even if science is a blasphemous act that pulls down the gods of the previous generation again and again, everyone in this profession should be aware of this.

But for those who watch the fun, looking at it from a more cheesy angle, there are only two results. Or, if Jian Chen falls from the altar and is shattered from then on, those scavenging enemies who hide in the darkness will immediately appear and take advantage of his illness to kill him. Or, maybe from now until Jian Chen's death, there may be no one who tries to oppose many of Jian Chen's ideas, so as not to be embarrassed when he gets it.

For those who are not here to see the excitement, but really want to figure it out, they are not just concerned with the result, but with the whole process of the debate. They have mastered the law of logic, and they only need to go up to the process of polemics, and the result is predestined and inevitable.

In this open letter, Chen Jian used a very confident and somewhat educational-like attitude in this open letter, but it did not arouse the disgust of many people.

“…… In the course of my circumnavigation around the world, there were many people who questioned or opposed many of my previous ideas or things that were experimented and summarized. Some of these doubts I would explain very seriously, while others I didn't want to waste time arguing with their authors about why flies weren't birds. ”

"Clearly, the issue we are going to discuss today is serious, it is meaningful, it is important, and it is something that touches on the foundations of the whole world. I am very happy about this, I have always believed that the truth is becoming clearer and clearer, and I have always believed that science is a process that constantly pushes predecessors off the altar. For me, winning or losing itself is meaningless, what is meaningful is the process and result of winning and losing. ”

"I have read this gentleman's article when I was in Mincheng, and many of his arguments are worth thinking about, and even very reasonable. That's why it's important for me to say this before. ”

"He defined the combination of particles as those that can only appear after the transformation of the life essence, and those that can appear without the transformation of the life essence."

"But what exactly is the essence of life? He didn't give an explanation and thought it was the same as what I said about gravity. ”

"For the sake of discussion in the future, we can call the divisible matter that has been transformed by the essence of life an organic matter, and the inorganic matter that can exist without the transformation of nature is called an inorganic matter. I don't necessarily agree with this division, but naming something doesn't affect the effect of the thing itself. Just like gravity, it can be called gravity, it can be called charm or whatever you want it to be, but in the end, it needs a common word. Just as in some places a girl is called a sister-in-law, this does not affect the meaning of the general concept that she is just a girl elsewhere. ”

"Since this gentleman has given this definition, I have only given it a simple name. Without prejudice to any interpretation. ”

"As I said earlier, this gentleman regards such a thing as the essence of life as the gravitational pull of the biological world, or something similar to that already exists in the dark but we have been ignorant of and take for granted."

"Yes, gravity is like that, it's always there that we take it for granted, and our eyes can't see such a thing as gravity directly, we can only imagine it with our logical thinking. So, in this gentleman's view, the essence of life is also such a thing, which cannot be seen or touched, but it can logically exist. ”

"I think he has a good reason. The existence of gravity, for example, can only be imagined by observing the fall and philosophically defining the odd thing of mass. ”

"And it's the same with the Essence of Life. For example, organic matter can obviously only appear through the transformation of life essence, even if we already know that sugar is carbon, hydrogen and oxygen, but we can't make sugar at all by relying on hydrocarbon, hydrogen and oxygen. The key to turning carbon, hydrogen and oxygen into sugar and inorganic matter into organic matter is this essence of life. ”

The gentleman would say that, just like gravity, why the name doesn't affect the meaning of the thing. So the essence of life can be called vitality, it can be called soul, it can be called vitality, it can be called anything that wants to be called, and there are fans who have already used the word soul to explain it before I write this article. They will say, "Jian Chen, you have to know that the gravitational attraction has always existed, for example, the attraction has the same meaning as this attraction. So since you can use it, why can't we use the word soul in the name to refer to the life essence that you have just explained? ”

"Of course, this matter counts as an episode and has nothing to do with this gentleman, but I also take the opportunity to make a small suggestion about this episode before discussing this issue."

"People can have the same name, even Ji Xia, who made so many rules that everyone likes or dislikes, didn't make a rule that he couldn't have a duplicate name, and I was even less qualified to make a rule that he had to name it."

"However, we can see that in the future, there will be more and more new things that have never been thought of and never thought of, and what should be the name of these new things? I hope that the gentlemen of the palace will be able to come up with a result, which will not only involve the various disciplines, but also the translation of the languages and names of the new countries that have emerged in foreign exchanges, and this must be based on which everyone agrees. ”

For example, the new word called socialism that appeared in the teahouse and wine shop before is very good, and it is easy to intuitively understand that this is a study that considers the Chinese people as a whole and takes the sociality of people as the main body. Another example is the translation of European names, which uses transliteration instead of paraphrasing, which is also very good. We can't always call people blacksmiths, carpenters, butchers. ”

"For example, the 'essence of life' that we are talking about now, whether it exists or not, is sophistry about being a soul, which is not good. The soul is something that already exists, far beyond the essence of life. It's like, somebody sees a duck and names everything that looks like a duck duck, but in reality we call it a bird, and a duck is just a type of bird. ”

"I hope to be able to gain broad consent and build an organization with a wide range of participation, without any political significance, just to stipulate how the names of these new things should be named and defined, and what kind of rules should be followed, so as not to be used by some people with ulterior motives."

"Now, back to the point, the matter about this essence of life is very similar to what I just said about the relationship between ducks and birds. For example, the references to metals, acids, alkalis, anhydrides, etc., which already exist, are correct. So is the division between organic and inorganic matter correct? ”

"Without considering whether this life essence exists or not, there is no problem with this kind of formulation. Like ducks and people, you can say that one is a mammalian and the other is a bird. You can also say that one is wingless and the other is winged. It can also be said that both of these are two-legged animals. ”

In this sense, there seems to be nothing wrong with such a division, but the premise is whether the essence of life exists. Or how do you define it? That's the most critical question. ”

"If anything that can be transformed into life is organic matter, then what about water and carbon acid?"

"If only things that can be transformed by life and must be transformed by life can be organic, then what is it that fits this definition?"

"Or is this gentleman going to define such a thing—that whatever has not yet found a means of synthesis he will call organic; And then when it's synthesized, it's immediately called not organic. ”

"In that case, I think I can already throw in the towel, because this gentleman is already invincible. Obviously, this gentleman is not so shameless, and I hope so, and I believe so. ”

"In that case, we need to give me a precise definition of what kind of thing is organic. Whether it is an inductive method or a definition method, there is always a need for a general, internally related and systematic definition. For example, if it has wings, feathers, keel protrusions, and oviparity, it is a bird, and what I need is such a definition of organic matter. ”