‘Misconception of refutation’

Mr. Ambrose M. Benette appeared in the public domain forum once again after a period of absence. The MV Luta issue and his preaching on marijuana are recent ill-advised and poorly thought-out piece of logic that are not worth paying attention to. What prose championed by Ambrose Bennett on both points give good benchmark references to the old saying: It is not what you don’t know that gives trouble, it’s what you know that ain’t so.” In an argument, one should have a clear understanding of the premise and count the unimpeachable facts related to it in order to connect the unity of ideas to the conclusion as the truth of the argument.

Borrowing concepts and intellectual knowledge in the book, “The Problem of Logic” written by William Gibson and Agusta Klein, suggest that logic is the mind’s systematic attempt to understand the nature and the conditions of the search after “Truth.” The question of “What is truth?” pointed that truth can be viewed as: The unity of ideas as systematically organized through the control exercised by the relevant facts, or, the unity of ideas as systematically organized through the control exercised by the aspect of reality which is relevant to the purpose of the thinker. Truth should not be regarded as a datum, but as a problem.

The MV Luta is a legal or constitutional issue. It has nothing to do with the despair or hardship the Rotanese people hugged in their economic life. The question is one, is it legal or not legal? It is not if the law should allow giving a private citizen connected to Victor Hocog’s family, but if it does or not. There is no such thing as yes, no, or probably. Hence, Ambrose Bennett’s proposition of upside irrationality clutched the irrelevancy of his conclusion to a poorly organized thought. To answer Ambrose Bennett’s point of views on the MV Luta matter and his masterful obfuscation on marijuana issue, all these are the subject of Aristotle’s dictum on “ignoratio elenchi.” Ignoratio elenchi is a Latin word meaning “an ignoring of a refutation.” In other words, meaning “ignorance of refutation,” or alternatively, “misconception of refutation.”

Bringing the point of “ignoratio elenchi” does not focus much on what applies to Ambrose Bennett’s writing and questionable conclusion to an argument, I alert your readers that this concept applies logically to the irrelevant conclusion of law the elected AG manifested by his solicited opinion that erroneously granted the acting governor Mr. Ralph Torres to take over the reign of the power of the governor without election to that office. The fallacy in the conclusion and rule of law was disobedience committed by the beneficiary from that fateful opinion of the elected AG at the expense of the will of the CNMI people. A sanctioned violation of Article III, Section 7 of the CNMI Constitution is and was caused by fallacy would be an “ignoratio elenchi.” Here disobedience of the law was concluded as the law by the elected AG who pronounced the fallacy of his conclusion and application of the law, and consequently received by the willingness of the beneficiaries to accept disobeying the law as “Truth” to an ill-gotten windfall.

The use of rational language in words cited to produce a position also derives factual action when qualification is ignored, and the elected AG may have engaged in “secundum quid.” Resorting to the misuse of principle would be a “secundum quid” as well. When the “Truth” is compromised and fixed in fallacy, the culprits singularly and jointly are guilty of crime equal to treason against the will of the CNMI people. It is a shame that the beneficiaries of the fallacy on the interpretation and conclusion of law pronounced by the elected AG pertaining to the mandate of Article III, Section 7 of the CNMI Constitution would sit well in anointing the legitimacy of office belonging to the people of the CNMI. If we sleep at night, it is uncertain whether the beneficiaries of the fallacy do have their waking moments during the day that Article III, Section 7 of the CNMI Constitution was hijacked by collusion and thievery. This is no longer a mistake of opinion, but a corruption sanctioned by fallacy that was conceived by a silence and calculated maneuvers.

Francisco R. Agulto
Kanat Tabla