Question

Paul and Elder (2012) qualify their intellectual standards here to say that only "relevant" materials should be examined critically with respect to a question/issue. How might this apply with the priniciple of charity? What do you do in work settings when others introduce material that is not relevant or off-topic? How might the principle of charity work here?

Answer 1

Principle of charity which is otherwise called charitable interpretation is a rhetoric concept that explains the need for someone to look for true and rational information by overcoming irrationality, logical fallacies and looking for falsehood. One of the 9 intellectual standards of Paul and Elder (2012) is relevance and it explains the importance of looking for relevance in other’s material by asking does it relate to the problem, does it relate to the question and does it help solve the issue? If it does then it meets the standards, it’s alright to allow the material to be included or continued otherwise, one needs to ask for clarifications by intervening politely.

It normally happens in the work set-up where people might introduce materials that are not related or help the presentation. In such scenarios, it would be wise to ask the speaker to rethink about introducing that material which doesn’t help much. When we base this discussion on the principle of charity, it would be wise to look for the relevance of the material introduced or politely remind the presenter about the mismatch in the material and the topic presented.