Harvard Public Health promotes article questioning if 2 plus 2 equals 4
The School of Public Health has been active in publishing coronavirus-related studies and thought leadership.
Harvard’s T. H. Chan School of Public Health Tweeted an article where a Harvard PhD student casted doubt on the objective nature of math.
Harvard’s T. H. Chan School of Public Health shared an article from Popular Mechanics, titled, “Why Some People Think 2+2=5… and why they’re right.”
The school’s official Twitter page asked, “Have you ever thought to yourself, ‘How do I know that 2+2=4? Why isn’t it 2+2+5?’” The school then linked to a recent article in Popular Mechanics, which expanded on the question.
Have you ever thought to yourself, “How do I know that 2+2=4? Why isn’t it 2+2+5?” PhD student @kareem_carr talks about numbers and abstraction with @PopMech https://t.co/UIo4MJsgqO @HarvardGSAS
— HarvardPublicHealth (@HarvardChanSPH) August 30, 2020
Kareem Carr, a Harvard biostatistics Ph.D. student, is quoted heavily in the article for his recent Twitter thread, which explains why 2 plus 2 may not necessarily equal 4.
[RELATED: Harvard prof uses 9/11 to blame Trump for COVID deaths]
As the Popular Mechanics article explains, Carr grounds his thoughts in how statistical models are used to harm marginalized groups.
As Campus Reform reported in early August, professors at leading American universities took to social media in order to explain that Western mathematical constructs “reek of white supremacy” and “patriarchy.”
[RELATED: Math education prof: 2 + 2 = 4 ‘trope’ ‘reeks of white supremacy patriarchy’]
During the social media exchanges, Carr stated that “People say it’s subjectivism to ask if math is Western. I don’t get that. It’s an objective fact that some groups were more involved in the creation of modern math than others. They may have been *trying* to make it objective but it’s not stupid to ask if they actually succeeded!”
Scholars from Harvard Public Health have been active in publishing studies about COVID-19. The school has been a leader in investigating the possible effects of reopening public schools and office buildings. Experts from Harvard Public Health have been quoted in news stories about the United States’ COVID-19 response in outlets like the New York Times, Reuters, and the Miami Herald.
Harvard Public Health also posits that “racism is a public health crisis.”
In a statement published after the death of George Floyd, Chan School Dean Michelle Williams declared that the school “stands united in doing everything we can to live these values — in both our personal and professional capacities — to be agents of anti-racist social transformation and advance the well-being of all people around the globe.”
Follow the author of this article on Twitter: @BenZeisloft
