The decency or humility side of the principle of charity derives from our sure knowledge of human finitude which assures us that we can only be improved by opening ourselves to the minds of others, and usually, the more in disagreement we are with the other, the greater the reward when we finally come to understand how they are able to believe what they believe. In that understanding, we come to understand ourselves more deeply and are thus capable of new growth and improvement. Flaming The Internet provides technologies for many different types of interaction. Because e-mail communication lacks many social cues, some people communicate with less civility than usual. A flame is an e-mail message that is an emotional personal attack on someone for something they have written.
Civilized discourse occurs at a logical level.
The purpose of a flame is move the dialogue to an emotional level where constructive dialogue is destabilized. The effect of a flame is to usually to inflate the ego of the sender at the expense of the recipient. The following links express various opinions concerning flaming. From a higher education standpoint, these new technologies will require new policies that both recognize the changes in the way people communicate and preserving the traditional principles of intellectual freedom. The following principles are based on the recognition that the electronic community is subordinate to, and has a foundation based on the values espoused by the educational community.