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Full Idea
The 'principle of charity' is a misleading term, since there is no alternative if we want to make sense of the attitudes and actions of the agents around us.
Clarification
The 'principle of charity' says 'assume that most of what other people say is true'
Gist of Idea
There is simply no alternative to the 'principle of charity' in interpreting what others do
Source
Donald Davidson (Davidson on himself [1994], p.233)
Book Ref
'A Companion to the Philosophy of Mind', ed/tr. Guttenplan,Samuel [Blackwell 1995], p.233
A Reaction
I suppose so, but only with a background of evolutionary theory. I would necessarily assume charity if a robot spoke to me.
| 3965 | Mental entities do not add to the physical furniture of the world [Davidson] |
| 3960 | There are no such things as minds, but people have mental properties [Davidson] |
| 3964 | If the mind is an anomaly, this makes reduction of the mental to the physical impossible [Davidson] |
| 3961 | Obviously all mental events are causally related to physical events [Davidson] |
| 3963 | There are no strict psychophysical laws connecting mental and physical events [Davidson] |
| 3966 | The correct conclusion is ontological monism combined with conceptual dualism [Davidson] |
| 3962 | Cause and effect relations between events must follow strict laws [Davidson] |
| 3969 | There are no ultimate standards of rationality, since we only assess others by our own standard [Davidson] |
| 3968 | Propositions explain nothing without an explanation of how sentences manage to name them [Davidson] |
| 3967 | Absence of all rationality would be absence of thought [Davidson] |
| 3970 | Thought is only fully developed if we communicate with others [Davidson] |
| 3971 | There is simply no alternative to the 'principle of charity' in interpreting what others do [Davidson] |
| 3972 | Truth and objectivity depend on a community of speakers to interpret what they mean [Davidson] |
| 3973 | Without a teacher, the concept of 'getting things right or wrong' is meaningless [Davidson] |
| 3974 | Our meanings are partly fixed by events of which we may be ignorant [Davidson] |