PUBLIC MARKS from pgiger with tag rethorics

In philosophy and rhetoric, the principle of charity is an approach to understanding a speaker's statements by rendering the best, strongest possible interpretation of an argument's meaning. In its narrowest sense, the goal of this methodological principle is to help keep people trying to understand or evaluate the truth of an argument from introducing a logical fallacy or other error into an argument that is not inherent to it. According to Simon Blackburn, "it constrains the interpreter to maximize the truth or rationality in the subject's sayings."