I generally agree with point (1) but the point is irrelevant. Counting isn’t what makes 2 + 2 = 4 true. Although that is how we all learn to do math, by counting and memorizing addition and multiplication tables. I owe it all to my 3rd grade teacher. ;)
On point (2):
“on our macro scale of reality, on the scale of things we perceive with our senses, discrete, separate objects are a feature of the map, not the territory; they exist in your mind, not the reality. In the reality, there’s just a lot of atoms everywhere”
There are no atoms at the macro scale. Or, if you like, atoms are everywhere. A chair is an “atom” of my dinning room furniture set and I can choose to count 5 items, four chairs and a table, or one item, one dinning room set. How I choose to cut up the world will determine which answer I get. But I am very confident that rocks and trees and universities and constitutions do not exist in my mind. They have an objective ontology that is independent of my personal subjective needs, interests and desires. Which is what it means for something to be real.
“Was 2+2=4 before humans were around to invent that equation?”
The statement: “2 + 2 = 4” is absolutely true because it is true in all possible worlds. Humans did not invent the equation, we invented the symbols and means of expressing it but the relation that is expressed in the words is an objective feature of the world that is true regardless of our opinions about it. Scientific facts have the world to word direction of fit. That is, they are true only to the extent they correspond to the world.
“we can certainly speak of single photons”
Only if we choose to observe them as particles. Photons have been observed experimentally to be both particles and waves. “The measurement apparatus detected strong nonlocality, which certified that the photon behaved simultaneously as a wave and a particle in our experiment. This represents a strong refutation of models in which the photon is either a wave or a particle.” This presents a significant challenge to certain theories.
I generally agree with point (1) but the point is irrelevant. Counting isn’t what makes 2 + 2 = 4 true. Although that is how we all learn to do math, by counting and memorizing addition and multiplication tables. I owe it all to my 3rd grade teacher. ;)
On point (2): “on our macro scale of reality, on the scale of things we perceive with our senses, discrete, separate objects are a feature of the map, not the territory; they exist in your mind, not the reality. In the reality, there’s just a lot of atoms everywhere”
There are no atoms at the macro scale. Or, if you like, atoms are everywhere. A chair is an “atom” of my dinning room furniture set and I can choose to count 5 items, four chairs and a table, or one item, one dinning room set. How I choose to cut up the world will determine which answer I get. But I am very confident that rocks and trees and universities and constitutions do not exist in my mind. They have an objective ontology that is independent of my personal subjective needs, interests and desires. Which is what it means for something to be real.
“Was 2+2=4 before humans were around to invent that equation?”
The statement: “2 + 2 = 4” is absolutely true because it is true in all possible worlds. Humans did not invent the equation, we invented the symbols and means of expressing it but the relation that is expressed in the words is an objective feature of the world that is true regardless of our opinions about it. Scientific facts have the world to word direction of fit. That is, they are true only to the extent they correspond to the world.
“we can certainly speak of single photons”
Only if we choose to observe them as particles. Photons have been observed experimentally to be both particles and waves. “The measurement apparatus detected strong nonlocality, which certified that the photon behaved simultaneously as a wave and a particle in our experiment. This represents a strong refutation of models in which the photon is either a wave or a particle.” This presents a significant challenge to certain theories.