Drawing both from the
Principle of Charity and from the discipline of
Holding Off On Proposing Solutions, the Principle of Optimism (also known as
Aang's Principle) states that in any dispute, both parties should, as long as possible, assume that everyone's desiderata can be obtained if everyone's clever enough, without recourse to argument or fighting. The Principle of Optimism seeks to keep things in the frame of problem solving, rather than that of conflict.