Reasoning is something we do cooperatively with others as part of an ongoing conversation, as we identify disagreements and weigh one another’s reasons. We make certain assumptions when communicating that are important to make our conversations cooperative and productive, and to avoid fallacies. These assumptions can be expressed as nine specific principles:
- Charity: interpreting one’s opponent as rationally as possible;
- Open-Mindedness: maintaining one’s own views while listening to disagreement;
- Civility: making one’s contributions polite and respectful;
- Sharing Assumptions: using but not abusing presuppositions to limit the conversation;
- Justifying Exceptions: allowing for special cases but avoiding special pleading;
- Quality: making one’s contributions true, and known to be true;
- Quantity: making one’s contributions exactly as informative as required;
- Relevance: making one’s contributions relevant to the issue being discussed;
- Manner: making one’s contributions clear, and reducing vagueness and ambiguity.
- 3.1 Cooperation
- 3.2 Disagreement
- 3.3 Contributing to the Conversation