 A major worry about the Atlas Principle is that it is ad hoc. Despite its soothing resemblance to Grice’s second Quantity Maxim, it is questionable whether hearers generally prefer stronger interpretations to weaker ones. This suggests that the Atlas Principle may not be justified as an instance of a more general constraint, and is therefore stipulative. The sad and somewhat embarrassing truth seems to be that, thus far, we don’t really know why the PGA should hold.