Ding Mei's last question seemed to be that she remembered that she wanted to write a letter to Wang Defu to ask for philosophical questions, so she casually asked a question.

The focus of her writing this letter is actually in the front, which is naturally to bring her and Wang Defu closer to each other, and then express her appreciation for Wang Defu's talent.

However, Wang Defu was not interested in the previous meaningless content at all, but only focused on the question that Ding Mei casually asked at the end, and the result still disappointed him.

The philosophical question asked by Ding Mei is –

Whether the human soul exists or not, what is the world like after death?

Some people may see this question and can't help but question, what is this especially philosophical problem?

This is indeed a philosophical question, and it is even a very popular question in this era, because this is the time when "metaphysics" is in vogue.

The so-called "metaphysics", in fact, is also called "metaphysics", a kind of philosophical research whose purpose is to determine the true nature of things, that is, to determine the meaning, structure and principle of existence.

"Metaphysics" refers to speculation about the nature of the unprovable invisible world, and it is an ontological system that studies "existence", which was later used to refer to the study of things that are beyond experience (soul, freedom of will, etc.).

"Metaphysics" is a compulsory course in the philosophy course that Wang Defu is currently studying, and every time he takes this "metaphysics" course, he feels an inexplicable sense of joy, just because in the era in which he once lived, "metaphysics" was criticized to the fullest, but there are still many philosophers studying "metaphysics" in this era.

These philosophers are not called philosophers but "metaphysicians".

Ding Mei asked Wang Defu such a question, probably just casually found two books on the current popular "metaphysics", and then flipped through it twice, and found a question that she could understand and was of little interest, so she asked Wang Defu a question.

Wang Defu actually wanted to completely deny "metaphysics" for a long time, because he felt that the problems of "metaphysics" research were meaningless, but if he really did this, he was afraid that he would be besieged by all the current philosophical schools, the so-called one step ahead is a genius, and two steps ahead is a madman, and he does not want to be called a "madman".

He had already had a complete plan for his development in the field of philosophy, he first had to have his own school of philosophy, and a large number of disciples who were cheering for him, and instead of denying it in this era when "metaphysics" was in vogue, it was better to mix in it and consider how to affirm it.

After all, "how metaphysics is possible" has always been an unfulfilled question, and if he pretends to try to find a place for metaphysics, he may be accepted by other philosophical schools as "his own person", and when he is full-fledged, he chooses to sacrifice the "dialectic" as a big killer weapon, and completely send "metaphysics" to the grave.

Wang Defu doesn't want to expose his contempt for the "metaphysics" of this era yet, so he answers Ding Mei's question like this-

The existence of the human soul depends on himself.

What the world is like after death, when you die, you will naturally know.

Wang Defu replied perfunctorily, but at least he did not directly say that the philosophical questions that Ding Mei asked, or the metaphysical questions that can only be classified as philosophical questions in this era, have no meaning at all.

These questions really depend on the individual, how you like to think and think, you can think that the human soul absolutely exists, you can think that you can enter heaven or spiritual mountain after death, in short, you can be happy.

But the most ridiculous thing is that different people are arguing about such meaningless issues as if they were fighting each other, depending on who can blow it.

Similar to "who has the stronger combat power in the world of science or the world of magic", this kind of question is really not suitable for debate, but suitable for writing novels, and it is enough to be able to justify itself in the novel.

Wang Defu's reply to Chen Qingyan can be said to be very weighty, but the reply to Ding Mei is only a piece of paper, and he can already see from the so-called philosophical questions asked by Ding Mei that the other party is not so much interested in philosophy, but because he is studying philosophy, so he said so, so that there seems to be a common topic.

Ding Mei may not know that Wang Defu and more than eighty percent of the people who study philosophy in this era have no common topic, just like modern people go back to ancient times and tell them how fun computer games are, but they are inexplicable.

After Wang Defu replied to Ding Mei's letter, he began to read the academic journals of philosophy that he had ordered.

Today's most famous philosophical academic journal is "World Philosophy", its position in the entire world philosophical circles, equivalent to "Science" and "Nature", by the way, the world's "Science" and "Nature" are the publications of the Chinese Empire, after all, China is indeed the center of the scientific community.

As a top academic journal of philosophy, "World Philosophy" is naturally very influential, and many people who study philosophy are proud to be able to publish papers on it.

In addition to the world-class academic journal of philosophy "World Philosophy", there are two national academic journals of philosophy, one is "Philosophical Studies" and the other is "Philosophical Analysis", which are core journals and award-winning journals.

The rest, such as "Times and Trends of Thought", "Philosophical Dynamics", etc., are like academic journals that brush up the number of papers for scholars studying philosophy, or if you want to graduate from a doctorate in the Department of Philosophy, you must publish a paper on it, and this actually doesn't need how good the paper is, you just need to serve a good professor and let the professor go to say hello to you, and it's stable.

In this era of philosophy and metaphysics, as long as you choose to study a question similar to the one that Ding Mei just asked, and can discuss it like that, then you can basically publish a paper in an ordinary philosophical academic journal.

This is also the reason why the literature department of Soochow University ridiculed the philosophy department as bastards before, maybe the literature students really think that it is easy to let them write philosophy papers, isn't it just nonsense, then their literature department is also good, and the writing is better.

Wang Defu's purpose in reading philosophical academic journals now is naturally not to learn something from them, but to consider which academic journal he should choose, and to submit his first philosophical academic paper carefully prepared, and he was writing his own thesis when he was taking a professional course in "metaphysics".