Official Ramakanta vs. IRM discussion thread

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Posted by Yaduraja on Jan 01, 2006:

 

Dear Ramakanta Prabhu,

PAMHO, AGTSP

 

You wrote:

 

> I am not sure if you got me. I guess you see no difference between

> following two statements:

>

> "Srila Prabhupada announced that he will stop being the sole diksa-guru

> for ISKCON."

>

> "Srila Prabhupada announced that he will stop being diksa-guru for

> ISKCON."

 

In the second sentence you have missed out the word ‘the’. If you recall it

should read:

 

"Srila Prabhupada announced that he will stop being *the* diksa-guru for

ISKCON."

 

As I explained in English both sentences mean exactly the same thing.

 

The word ‘the’ above is singular. If it was plural it would be ‘a diksa guru

for ISKCON’ or ‘one of the diksa gurus for ISKCON’. So the word ‘the’, in

the above sentence means ‘sole’ or ‘only’.

 

Since both sentences mean EXACTLY the same thing I have not misrepresented

your position, and therefore I have not made a straw man argument, either

intentionally or accidentally.

 

It is not a straw man argument to merely paraphrase someone’s position

accurately. It is only a straw man if you change that person’s position so

that it means something different. This I have not done.

 

What happened is that you accidentally contradicted yourself as I explained.

You clearly did not realise that both sentences meant the same when you

wrote:

 

> “I did not write that Srila Prabhupada announced he would stop being the

> diksa guru for ISKCON. So this is a straw man argument.”(Ramakanta Dec 10,

> 2005 - 05:09 AM)

 

So if you withdraw your claim that I misrepresented your position, i.e. made

a straw man argument, then I will be happy to return to point a).

Best wishes

Ys

Yadu