that there are no others? Suppose I feel I have a fairly wide experience of animals, both directly and indirectly, and I suddenly see this animal in an environment I'm familiar with, but which I've never seen before. It seems to me unreasonable to believe that there might be others of these beings who, for some unknown reason, I've never experienced ever. It seems to me simpler to assume that this is just a one-off; some massively mutated version of something I *have* seen before.
With respect to your second paragraph: Suppose I've seen one cat, and it can jump. Then, certainly, I can say that all cats I've ever seen can jump; and I suppose one could say that all cats can jump. But if, as I argued above, it's not reasonable to believe that there is more than one cat, then I have no reason to believe that there's more than one being who can jump. |
