CriticalThinking Tutorial 3

1 Chapter 3: Clarifying Meaning1.1 The Principle of CharityThe principle of charity is concerned with cases in which there is more than one way to interpretwhat is meant by a speaker or writer and the speaker or writer is not present to clarify what wassaid or written. The principle of charity states that we have a moral obligation to adopt themost charitable interpretation of the speaker or writer’s words. This principle should always beadopted when the source is reputable, but there are reasons to adopt it in general. For instance,if one’s aim is to criticize an argument, then if one disarms the argument by giving the mostcharitableinterpretationtoitsstatements, thenonegivesthemostpenetratingcriticismpossible.Less charitable interpretations will then also fall.1.2 Linguistic AmbiguityWe will now consider several ways that language can be difficult to give an interpretation.1.2.1 Ambiguity and VaguenessHere we want to distinguish between vague and ambiguous sentences. An ambiguous sentenceis one that has two or more different but usually quite precise meanings. A vague sentence isone that lacks a precise meaning. Ambiguous sentences should be avoided whenever there isa possibility of someone choosing the wrong meaning. Vague sentences should also be aviodedexcept in cases where more precision is either not required or not possible. For instance, it mightbe necessary to use vauge language when describing a vague thought or feeling as inThat was a noisy ...