Respect for wrong arguments?

Shaosheng commented that we should embrace other people's ideas, and not shoot them down the moment they are expressed.

Out of respect, when we argue with someone, it is basic that we:

1. listen to what the other person is saying
2. make sure we understand it
3. apply the principle of charity, which is to fill in all the blanks in their argument to put their argument in the best possible form the author wishes to express.

After which, if the best possible way the argument can be put is still flawed, then the argument should be rejected. It works the same way for ideas,

1. listen to what the other person is saying
2. make sure we understand it
3. apply the principle of charity, which is to fill in all the blanks in their ideas to put their ideas in the best possible form the author wishes to express.

I suppose what shaosheng means by "embrace" is the first 3 parts. However, if after the first 3 steps are completed, and the best possible form an idea is still a comepletely unconstructive one, then it should be perfectly fine to tear it down. There seems no point in keeping or even respecting ideas that are plainly useless.

Then instead of tearing it down, why not help to make it better? In order to improve upon an idea, it is important for us to first see its flaws. If an idea is so bad that it can be torn down so easily and cannot be rebuilt, then perhaps that idea isn't really worth improving upon in the first place. If an idea has some good in it, after someone attempts to tear it down, you could come up with a new idea based on the former idea. The new idea would then be better than the original one, since it would have some defence against that argument. Others can now attempt to tear it down again, and after numerous improvements, the idea improves. Scrutinising every idea for flaws would defend us against false beliefs.

In my opinion, a bad idea is not worth improving upon, as it may take less effort to tear it down and make another one than to improve upon it. A pretty good idea may have flaws, but the flaws may be easily corrected. The best way to get a set of good ideas to is scrutinise every single idea, reject those that are plainly useless or wrong, improve upon only those that are already quite good, and come up with new ideas again if the old ones are still not good enough. The amount of good in bad ideas is not really worth the effort to recover.