Personally, I find talking about words and language to be more interesting than numbers. The word “banana” is easier to attack than the number “2″. When you say:
I can put 2 bananas on a table, then put down 2 more bananas, and count out 4 bananas.
This implies that the perception of “2 + 2 = 4” is built on your perceptions of “bananas”. In my opinion, this has nothing to do with math and everything to do with language. “2 + 2 = 4” is relatively useless unless everyone agrees 2 + 2 = 4. The same is true of “banana”. The word is useless unless enough people agree about what it means. To ask if 2 + 2 = 4 is “true” is linguistically irrelevant.
This is not to say that the question is irrelevant in all contexts, but when talking about it, asking about its truth may be a misnomer.
Personally, I find talking about words and language to be more interesting than numbers. The word “banana” is easier to attack than the number “2″. When you say:
This implies that the perception of “2 + 2 = 4” is built on your perceptions of “bananas”. In my opinion, this has nothing to do with math and everything to do with language. “2 + 2 = 4” is relatively useless unless everyone agrees 2 + 2 = 4. The same is true of “banana”. The word is useless unless enough people agree about what it means. To ask if 2 + 2 = 4 is “true” is linguistically irrelevant.
This is not to say that the question is irrelevant in all contexts, but when talking about it, asking about its truth may be a misnomer.