It doesn’t have the same structure at all. “No” is always the preferred response to “do you continue to beat your wife?” The preferred answer of a strict reading of “have you stopped beating your wife?” depends on whether you had been previously (which sets up the trap of the joke).
“Did they continue torturing children?” “No” implies they had in the past.
“Did they continue torturing children?” “Yes” is only true if they did so in the past and are continuing to do so.
What I meant was without assuming a value for ‘they have tortured children in the past’ (which I assume to be at least slightly controversial) you cannot give a probability to it.
Though I suppose if they have not tortured children in the past the correct probability of continuation would be 0% as it is impossible. Same as the prediction “P&¬P.” (Though realistically you’d want to incorporate your assessment of the available evidence, see my comment on kalla724′s post).
It doesn’t have the same structure at all. “No” is always the preferred response to “do you continue to beat your wife?” The preferred answer of a strict reading of “have you stopped beating your wife?” depends on whether you had been previously (which sets up the trap of the joke).
“Did they continue torturing children?” “No” implies they had in the past.
“Did they continue torturing children?” “Yes” is only true if they did so in the past and are continuing to do so.
What I meant was without assuming a value for ‘they have tortured children in the past’ (which I assume to be at least slightly controversial) you cannot give a probability to it.
Though I suppose if they have not tortured children in the past the correct probability of continuation would be 0% as it is impossible. Same as the prediction “P&¬P.” (Though realistically you’d want to incorporate your assessment of the available evidence, see my comment on kalla724′s post).