Expanded Notes on Charity

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Why Be Charitable?

There are two important reasons for being charitable at this stage of the critical thinking game, one that is in the interest of the dialogue and another that is a bit more self-serving. 

  1. Dialogue Advancement.  If you are charitable to a fellow arguer, it is more likely that you will cast their argument in a form that meets with their approval, thereby enabling the dialogue to move forward.  If a substantive and sustained exchange is the goal, then a charitable approach should prove rewarding.

  2. Agenda Advancement.  If you intend to criticize an argument advanced by another arguer, it is much better to criticize it in its strongest form, as this will put your position in the best possible light.  If you don't do this, you run the risk of annoying your fellow arguer, who might then decide that you are not taking her seriously.  At worst, failure to be charitable puts you in danger of committing the strawman fallacy, i.e., the fallacy of presenting a seriously weakened version of a legitimate argument.  After all, no one is impressed when you knock over a strawman.