The problem with this is that other people are often saying something stupid. Because of that, I think charitable is over-rated compared to fair and accurate reading. When someone says something stupid, you don’t have to pretend otherwise, but it’s really important not to attribute to people stupid things they never said.
Well perhaps you should adopt a charitable interpretation of the principle of charity :) It occurs to me that the phrase itself might not be ideal since “charity” implies that you are giving something which the recipient does not necessarily deserve. Anyway, here’s an example which I saw just yesterday:
The context is a discussion board where people argue, among other things, about discrimination against fat people.
Person 1: Answer a question for me: if you were stuck on the 3rd floor of a burning house and passed out, and you had a choice between two firefighter teams, one composed of men who weighted 150-170lbs and one composed of men well above 300, which team would you choose to rescue you?
Person 2: My brother is 6’ 9”, and with a good deal of muscle and a just a little pudge he’d be well over 350 (he’s currently on the thin side, probably about 290 or so). He’d also be able to jump up stairs and lift any-fucking-thing. Would I want him to save me? Hell yes. Gosh, learn to math,
It seems to me the problem here is that Person 2 seized upon an ambiguity in Person 1′s question in order to dodge the central point of the question. The Principle of Charity would have required Person 2 to assume that the 300 pound men in the hypothetical were of average height and not 6′9″
I think it’s a somewhat important principle because it’s very difficult to construct statements and questions without ambiguities which can be seized upon by those who are hostile to one’s argument. If I say “the sky is blue,” every reasonable person knows what I mean. And it’s a waste of everyone’s time and energy to make me say something like “The sky when viewed from the surface of the Earth generally appears blue to humans with normal color vision during the daytime when the weather is clear.”
So call it whatever you want, the point is that one should be reasonable in interpreting others’ statements and questions.
Well perhaps you should adopt a charitable interpretation of the principle of charity :) It occurs to me that the phrase itself might not be ideal since “charity” implies that you are giving something which the recipient does not necessarily deserve. Anyway, here’s an example which I saw just yesterday:
The context is a discussion board where people argue, among other things, about discrimination against fat people.
Person 1: Answer a question for me: if you were stuck on the 3rd floor of a burning house and passed out, and you had a choice between two firefighter teams, one composed of men who weighted 150-170lbs and one composed of men well above 300, which team would you choose to rescue you?
Person 2: My brother is 6’ 9”, and with a good deal of muscle and a just a little pudge he’d be well over 350 (he’s currently on the thin side, probably about 290 or so). He’d also be able to jump up stairs and lift any-fucking-thing. Would I want him to save me? Hell yes. Gosh, learn to math,
It seems to me the problem here is that Person 2 seized upon an ambiguity in Person 1′s question in order to dodge the central point of the question. The Principle of Charity would have required Person 2 to assume that the 300 pound men in the hypothetical were of average height and not 6′9″
I think it’s a somewhat important principle because it’s very difficult to construct statements and questions without ambiguities which can be seized upon by those who are hostile to one’s argument. If I say “the sky is blue,” every reasonable person knows what I mean. And it’s a waste of everyone’s time and energy to make me say something like “The sky when viewed from the surface of the Earth generally appears blue to humans with normal color vision during the daytime when the weather is clear.”
So call it whatever you want, the point is that one should be reasonable in interpreting others’ statements and questions.