Of late, there are a few questions that are taking up too much of my mind share. The commonality of these questions is that they appear elementary and seem to frequent more often than due. Every time they occur they cajole me into unfolding them, and in the process they beget more questions and leave me increasingly embittered by my inadequacies to find any reasonable answers.
One such question haunting me is "How do I know for sure that 2+2=4?".
Let me tell you frankly that this question did not chance on me from nowhere. Perhaps, a few philosophical and spiritual books that I have begun to simultaneously leaf through are to blame. This curiosity, I must admit, has not yet been attended to with a sufficient degree of perusal or contemplation.
What mystifies me is not this question by and of itself, but that I can hardly recollect any instance in my past when a question of such fundamental nature cropped up. It is not that today I am any more skeptical than before in the fact that 2+2=4. But what confronts me now is when did I first acquire and how did I come to accept the veracity of this statement?
Why did I not ever attempt to question this fact, and more so, my belief in this fact? Why do I assume an absolute truth in this proposition, but have an undulating skepticism in other propositions, for example, in the existence of anything supranatural? (If my memory has not failed, my orthodox upbringing has not at any time let any inkling of suspicion on the latter "fact" come close to me.)
Have I reasoned that 2+2 ought to be 4? Or have I observed empirically it to be so? Or is it a testament that I have never learnt to question?
I hope to know. But, what is that whereby I can arrive at truthfulness of such statements?