Whatever the problem, someone can always oversimplify it. Sometimes a problem is simpler than it seems at first sight, and a cool mind can point to an easy answer. More often though, the simple answers don't really meet the case. A great scientist of an earlier day, Sir Arthur Eddington, once said that we often think all about two, because "two is one and one" We forget that we still have to make a study of "and".
There's an important point here, an extra factor in the equation. Whether we are dealing with fellow humans, or even with observed "scientific fact", one and one often make more than two, because there's a relationship as well as a number. There's a mysterious chemistry that alters things, just through their being together. One think which makes paintings fascinating and demanding is allowing for this. Put a spot of bright yellow paint on a background of grey, and the yellow spot on a bright blue background, and the tallow looks duller and smaller. The same color is changed by what's around it's changed by relationship.