This is how I understand it (admitingly not great at math):
The concept of 2 plus the concept of 2 equals the conept of 4.
The arbirary symbol we give meaning to these concepts don't matter.
I see this happen in the real world. I get 2 apples and put it next 2 other apples. I declare I have 4 apples.
But what bugs me is some very wierd concepts thrown at me by people in abstract math, or even 1984. Or something. Can 2+2=5 ever? And I'm not talking about the symbols, but the concept of those numbers.
And they keep telling me subtraction really doesn't exist. And how does Godels inconsistency theorems play a role in this?
Is math an a priori synthetical?