Re: OT: n guilty men: what is n? [Was: Re: FSF condemns partnership between Mozilla and Adobe...]
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On 05/20/2014 11:03 AM, Alois Mahdal wrote:
> I am confused about the meaning of n. He first states that
>
> n = (P - 10) / 10; # P being population of Sodom,
Actually, he first states that (taking excerpts):
>> "Better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent
>> suffer," 2 says English jurist William Blackstone.
>> But why ten?
>> n guilty men, then.
I.e., N is the number of guilty persons for which it is better that they
escape punishment than that one innocent person suffer it. (Or similar
statements throughout history.)
The reference to Sodom comes only later, as one of the many examples of
people using this idea - with different values for N - over the course
of history. It doesn't define the value of N any more than any other of
the examples do; it's just one example among many.
> so n has no particular known weight or meaning: Is it n = 1 if we
> save 1 innocent for 1 guilty? Is it n = 10 if we save 1 innocent for
> 10 guilty? That would almost make sense except that it would
> silently imply P = 110.
It would only imply that if the value of N is the same in both cases.
The point here is that different people have stated different values for
N at different points in history; some people have said 1, some people
have said 10, God apparently said (P - 10) where the value of P is not
known to us, et cetera.
> Then, in the rest of the article, he refers to n but, failing to
> explain the meaning of it, I don't see any point of reading it.
>
> Did I miss something?
I think the first section, concluding with the paragraph that begins "N
guilty men, then.", is probably the explanation that you're looking for.
The article appears to be specifically about the many different values
people have used for N over the course of the long history of this idea.
If that's not (related to) what you're asking, then I'm afraid I don't
understand the question.
- --
The Wanderer
Secrecy is the beginning of tyranny.
A government exists to serve its citizens, not to control them.
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