[lbo-talk] Re: The Ontology of Two Chairs (was Reich on sex &...)

John Mage jmage at panix.com
Mon Jan 3 08:49:32 PST 2005


John Kozak wrote:

>>> I don't know him; does he argue that 2+2=4 can be false? If so, I

>>> like to see the argument; it would be fascinating.

>> Well, in base 3, the argument wouldn't be false, it would be

>> nonsensical.

> But it isn't _in_ base three, any more than your above sentence is in

> German.

I'm not sure that this aids Joanna's point, but on a more elementary level (that is to say i was taught this in elementary school) the truth of 2+2=4 is conditioned on the assumption of the density of real numbers. Otherwise 2+2=4 is not true by definition. i.e., if 2 (as in "2 percent of the vote") stands for all values between more than 1.5 and less than 2.5, then 2+2=4 will often be false.

john mage



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