Principle of charity

According to Simon Blackburn,[2] "it constrains the interpreter to maximize the truth or rationality in the subject's sayings."

Its main area of application, by his lights, is determining the referent of a proper name:How should we set about discovering the significance which a person attaches to a given name?

[3]Willard Van Orman Quine[4] and Donald Davidson[5] provide other formulations of the principle of charity.

In 2022 Piotr Sikora and Jakub Prus proposed a developed version, adopted for a critical discussion – dialectical principle of charity (DPC).

[6] DPC constitutes a procedure for a critical discussion and consists of four steps: (i) presupposing the best interpretation of what one said; if needed—(ii) asking whether it was understood correctly; if needed—(iii) formulating some argument against it, analyzing its reasons; if needed—(iv) questioning our own view which contradicts the discussed proposition.