Inferences and Implications

That doesn't sound like a muffin, frowned Pliny the Elder.

You mean my lunch the other day? Why not? I asked.

A muffin is a bread product, said Pliny, baked in small batches.

The modern muffin is more like a large cupcake, I said. That's what my lunch looked like.

But, argued Pliny, it was made from risotto.

It was shaped like a muffin, I insisted. So it was a muffin. I imagine it was baked in a muffin tray.

That does not make it a muffin, said Pliny. If I baked a lump of clay in a muffin tray, would it be a muffin?

Is this a cooking question or an art question? I asked.

I'm merely pointing out, said Pliny, that you have made an inference where no inference is due.

An object in the shape of a muffin, I said, implies a muffin tray, and a muffin tray implies a muffin.

No object implies the existence of any other, remarked Pliny.

Now that rings a bell, I said , trying to recall where I'd heard it.

Hume's Mirror, said Pliny. Don't you remember?