One way to make this more intuitive is to frame it in terms of exploring for ravens. If I search through forest after forest for a non-black raven, I will be inspecting enormous numbers of non-black non-ravens: trees, rocks, rivers, open spaces, elk. And yes, I think that most people would agree that if you do this enough, and find no non-white ravens (but do find black ravens), then that’s some evidence that all ravens are black.
One way to make it less intuitive is to consider a universe consisting of nine green apples, and nothing else. If I inspect all nine apples (knowing in advance that the universe only contains 9 objects), that’s certainly evidence that there are no non-black ravens. Is it evidence that all ravens are black, in this universe that contains no ravens?
It is indeed evidence proof that all ravens are black, as well as that all ravens are white, and also that no ravens exist. These are not mutually contradictory propositions.
Of course, it is also proof that you are a green apple. (User name checks out?)
One way to make this more intuitive is to frame it in terms of exploring for ravens. If I search through forest after forest for a non-black raven, I will be inspecting enormous numbers of non-black non-ravens: trees, rocks, rivers, open spaces, elk. And yes, I think that most people would agree that if you do this enough, and find no non-white ravens (but do find black ravens), then that’s some evidence that all ravens are black.
One way to make it less intuitive is to consider a universe consisting of nine green apples, and nothing else. If I inspect all nine apples (knowing in advance that the universe only contains 9 objects), that’s certainly evidence that there are no non-black ravens. Is it evidence that all ravens are black, in this universe that contains no ravens?
It is indeed
evidenceproof that all ravens are black, as well as that all ravens are white, and also that no ravens exist. These are not mutually contradictory propositions.Of course, it is also proof that you are a green apple. (User name checks out?)
nit:
I think you meant “no non-black ravens” here.