Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
Editorials & Other Articles
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
Science
In reply to the discussion: Is the idea of "2 + 2 = 4" cultural? [View all]hunter
(40,703 posts)38. Integer math is fucking bullshit. Counting is a lie.
The universe doesn't work that way. All groups are artificial. Every object unique. No two marbles are the same.
I measure everything by Plank Constant.
2 + 2 = 4 only by statistics. Sometimes it's a little more, sometimes a little less. The chances of it being exactly four are infinitesimal.
Edit history
Please sign in to view edit histories.
Recommendations
0 members have recommended this reply (displayed in chronological order):
42 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight:
NoneDon't highlight anything
5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
RecommendedHighlight replies with 5 or more recommendations
As a mathematician (I most definitely am not) you might be able to support or reject this idea of
chia
Jul 2020
#12
Put two eggs on a table. Now put two more. Count the eggs. Regardless of culture, same answer.
Midnight Writer
Jul 2020
#17
The symbols used to denote the numbers are cultural. Science is not cultural.
applegrove
Jul 2020
#22
This is the old "who has all the answers" philosophy question put on an especially poor platform.
Eugene
Jul 2020
#30
Well, as I recall, Alfred Whitehead and Bertrand Russell spent page after page...
NNadir
Jul 2020
#32
Well, if she tweets in public, "attacking" "Western Imperialism" for supporting 2+2 equals 4
muriel_volestrangler
Jul 2020
#37
This is totally gonna invalidate my thesis on equivariant cohomology theories :(
Lucky Luciano
Aug 2020
#39