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Single Idea 8614
[filed under theme 19. Language / F. Communication / 6. Interpreting Language / c. Principle of charity
]
Full Idea
Unlike principles of crude charity, sophisticated principles of charity call for imputations of error in the subject if he has lived in deceptive conditions.
Gist of Idea
A sophisticated principle of charity sometimes imputes error as well as truth
Source
David Lewis (New work for a theory of universals [1983], 'Cont of L')
Book Ref
'Properties', ed/tr. Mellor,D.H. /Oliver,A [OUP 1997], p.224
A Reaction
This begs lots of questions about how you decide conditions are 'deceptive' if you have not yet embarked on your radical interpretation of the subject. Davidson's point still stands, that imputing truth must be the normal procedure.
The
21 ideas
with the same theme
[assume people aim to speak truth]:
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4144
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Common human behaviour enables us to interpret an unknown language
[Wittgenstein]
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11049
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To communicate, language needs agreement in judgment as well as definition
[Wittgenstein]
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6314
|
Weird translations are always possible, but they improve if we impose our own logic on them
[Quine]
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6315
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We should be suspicious of a translation which implies that a people have very strange beliefs
[Quine]
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7330
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The principle of charity only applies to the logical constants
[Quine, by Miller,A]
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6316
|
We translate in a way that makes the largest possible number of statements true
[Wilson,NL]
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6275
|
You can't say 'most speaker's beliefs are true'; in some areas this is not so, and you can't count beliefs
[Putnam]
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18703
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Davidson's Cogito: 'I think, therefore I am generally right'
[Davidson, by Button]
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3971
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There is simply no alternative to the 'principle of charity' in interpreting what others do
[Davidson]
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8869
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The principle of charity attributes largely consistent logic and largely true beliefs to speakers
[Davidson]
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19154
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The principle of charity says an interpreter must assume the logical constants
[Davidson]
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3403
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We assume people believe the obvious logical consequences of their known beliefs
[Kim]
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3402
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If someone says "I do and don't like x", we don't assume a contradiction
[Kim]
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9040
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Charity should minimize inexplicable error, rather than maximising true beliefs
[Evans]
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15539
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Basic to pragmatics is taking a message in a way that makes sense of it
[Lewis]
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8614
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A sophisticated principle of charity sometimes imputes error as well as truth
[Lewis]
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8615
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We need natural properties in order to motivate the principle of charity
[Lewis]
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2762
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Charity makes native beliefs largely true, and Humanity makes them similar to ours
[Dancy,J]
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7328
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The principle of charity is holistic, saying we must hold most of someone's system of beliefs to be true
[Miller,A]
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7329
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Maybe we should interpret speakers as intelligible, rather than speaking truth
[Miller,A]
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4734
|
Cryptographers can recognise that something is a language, without translating it
[O'Grady]
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