Regarding genes and the environment ... Does the environment include intangibles? [View All]

[Boojatta]

Second question: Can you describe a non-empty set of positive whole numbers that has no least element?

The obvious answer to the second question is "no", but that answer can be amplified. Not only are you unable to describe such a set, but no such set exists. We are confident that no such set exists, but what is our confidence based on?

Is it based primarily on the cultural environment, which includes textbooks that assert that no such set exists, and teachers who punish unorthodox answers to the second question with low marks?

Is it based primarily on human genes, so that such a set might exist, but people would have to struggle against their instincts to accept that it exists?

Is our confidence based primarily on past observations, making it potentially like a false conjecture that seems too difficult to prove, but for which a counter-example is eventually discovered? In other words, is it not something that should be a foundation for mathematical conclusions, but is itself in as much need of justification as any theorem that one might wish to prove?