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The principle of charity suggests being open and receptive to others’ statements, viewing them positively rather than dismissing them. Factors like culture, dialect, education, and genetics shape people’s thinking and speech. Applying this principle helps in understanding others’ perspectives, including those with different backgrounds or language barriers. It also acknowledges that misunderstandings may arise from differences in conversational models.
The principle of charity states that people should be more open and receptive to what others say. They should try to view other people’s statements in the most positive light rather than dismissing them as incomprehensible. People are different and everyone thinks and speaks differently. People are the product of their environment and are shaped by factors such as culture, dialect, education level, and genetic makeup. A person who lives in a poor neighborhood may not think the same way as a person who lives in an affluent neighborhood. This person’s thought process can be influenced by things like a sense of trying to survive every day. That’s not to say such a person isn’t brilliant; the problem may be in the way the person tries to take stock of her.
According to the principle of charity, an Ivy League graduate who grew up in an affluent neighborhood might be tempted to ignore what less well-off people are saying simply because they don’t understand most of the slang of speech. The principle of charity demands that the listener make allowances when he listens to another person in order to fully grasp the salient points that person is trying to make. It works both ways because the Ivy League graduate might be talking about things that don’t matter to the reality of someone less educated in an impoverished community. However, by applying the principle of charity, that person will look for the most persuasive parts of the other person’s speech.
Another example of applying the principle of charity is when someone is listening to an immigrant trying to speak his language. The immigrant might be a professor in his home country, but since he is still learning the new language, his thoughts of him might not give the expected impression. By applying the principle of charity, the listener will restructure the immigrant’s words to arrange them in a more logical way that makes more sense to him or her.
Another meaning that has been attached to the principle of meaning is that most of the time a listener’s inability to understand what the speaker is saying is not due to the speaker’s inability to say anything intelligible. Rather, the fault lies with the listener who has failed to interpret what the speaker is saying in a way that makes it intelligible to him or her. This is simply a difference in logical wording between the various conversational models.
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