It’s not a feature of arithmetic, it’s a feature of doing.
I attribute ‘doing’ an action to the user of the tool, not to the tool. It is a rare case in which I attribute an artifact as an agent; if the mechanical sheep counter provided some signal to indicate the number or presence of sheep outside the fence, I would call it a machine that counts sheep. If it was simply a mechanical system that moved pebbles into and out of a bucket, I would say that counting the sheep is done by the person who looks in the bucket.
If a calculator does arithmetic, do the components of the calculator do arithmetic, or only the calculator as a whole? Or is it the system of which does arithmetic?
I’m still looking for a definition of ‘arithmetic’ which allows me to be as sure about whether arithmetic has been done as I am sure about whether excavation has been done.
It’s not a feature of arithmetic, it’s a feature of doing.
I attribute ‘doing’ an action to the user of the tool, not to the tool. It is a rare case in which I attribute an artifact as an agent; if the mechanical sheep counter provided some signal to indicate the number or presence of sheep outside the fence, I would call it a machine that counts sheep. If it was simply a mechanical system that moved pebbles into and out of a bucket, I would say that counting the sheep is done by the person who looks in the bucket.
If a calculator does arithmetic, do the components of the calculator do arithmetic, or only the calculator as a whole? Or is it the system of which does arithmetic?
I’m still looking for a definition of ‘arithmetic’ which allows me to be as sure about whether arithmetic has been done as I am sure about whether excavation has been done.