Definition
Charitable interpretation, also called the principle of charity, means engaging with the best version of what someone says or means rather than the weakest. Before you disagree, you reconstruct their position in its strongest, most coherent form — sometimes more clearly than they stated it themselves.
This is the opposite of a straw man, where a flimsy distortion of a view is attacked because it is easy to knock down. Charitable interpretation produces a steel man: an opponent's case made as solid as it can honestly be.
Why it matters
How it works
When you encounter a claim you want to reject, first restate it in a form the other person would accept, filling gaps with the most reasonable assumptions. Ask what a thoughtful person could see in this view. Only then engage.
The payoff is honest reasoning. If your position cannot beat the strengthened opposing case, you have learned something real rather than scoring an empty point.