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An argument map or argument diagram is a visual representation of the structure of an
argument An argument is a statement or group of statements called premises intended to determine the degree of truth or acceptability of another statement called conclusion. Arguments can be studied from three main perspectives: the logical, the dialectic ...
. An argument map typically includes the key components of the argument, traditionally called the '' conclusion'' and the ''
premise A premise or premiss is a true or false statement that helps form the body of an argument, which logically leads to a true or false conclusion. A premise makes a declarative statement about its subject matter which enables a reader to either agre ...
s'', also called ''contention'' and '' reasons''. Argument maps can also show
co-premise A co-premise is a premise in reasoning and informal logic which is not the main supporting reason for a contention or a lemma, but is logically necessary to ensure the validity of an argument. One premise by itself, or a group of co-premises can ...
s, objections, counterarguments,
rebuttal In law, rebuttal is a form of evidence that is presented to contradict or nullify other evidence that has been presented by an adverse party. By analogy the same term is used in politics and public affairs to refer to the informal process by ...
s, and
lemma Lemma may refer to: Language and linguistics * Lemma (morphology), the canonical, dictionary or citation form of a word * Lemma (psycholinguistics), a mental abstraction of a word about to be uttered Science and mathematics * Lemma (botany), ...
s. There are different styles of argument map but they are often functionally equivalent and represent an argument's individual claims and the relationships between them. Argument maps are commonly used in the context of teaching and applying
critical thinking Critical thinking is the analysis of available facts, evidence, observations, and arguments to form a judgement. The subject is complex; several different definitions exist, which generally include the rational, skeptical, and unbiased analys ...
. The purpose of mapping is to uncover the logical structure of arguments, identify unstated assumptions, evaluate the support an argument offers for a conclusion, and aid understanding of debates. Argument maps are often designed to support deliberation of issues, ideas and arguments in
wicked problem In planning and policy, a wicked problem is a problem that is difficult or impossible to solve because of incomplete, contradictory, and changing requirements that are often difficult to recognize. It refers to an idea or problem that cannot be fi ...
s. An argument map is not to be confused with a
concept map A concept map or conceptual diagram is a diagram that depicts suggested relationships between concepts. Concept maps may be used by instructional designers, engineers, technical writers, and others to organize and structure knowledge. A conce ...
or a mind map, two other kinds of node–link diagram which have different constraints on nodes and links.


Key features

A number of different kinds of argument maps have been proposed but the most common, which Chris Reed and Glenn Rowe called the ''standard diagram'', consists of a tree structure with each of the reasons leading to the conclusion. There is no consensus as to whether the conclusion should be at the top of the tree with the reasons leading up to it or whether it should be at the bottom with the reasons leading down to it. Another variation diagrams an argument from left to right. According to
Douglas N. Walton Douglas Neil Walton (2 June 1942 – 3 January 2020) was a Canadian academic and author, known for his books and papers on argumentation, logical fallacies and informal logic. He was a Distinguished Research Fellow of the Centre for Research in ...
and colleagues, an argument map has two basic components: "One component is a set of circled numbers arrayed as points. Each number represents a proposition (premise or conclusion) in the argument being diagrammed. The other component is a set of lines or arrows joining the points. Each line (arrow) represents an inference. The whole network of points and lines represents a kind of overview of the reasoning in the given argument..." With the introduction of software for producing argument maps, it has become common for argument maps to consist of boxes containing the actual propositions rather than numbers referencing those propositions. There is disagreement on the terminology to be used when describing argument maps, but the ''standard diagram'' contains the following structures: Dependent premises or co-premises, where at least one of the joined premises requires another premise before it can give support to the conclusion: An argument with this structure has been called a ''linked'' argument. Independent premises, where the premise can support the conclusion on its own: Although independent premises may jointly make the conclusion more convincing, this is to be distinguished from situations where a premise gives no support unless it is joined to another premise. Where several premises or groups of premises lead to a final conclusion the argument might be described as ''convergent''. This is distinguished from a ''divergent'' argument where a single premise might be used to support two separate conclusions. Intermediate conclusions or sub-conclusions, where a claim is supported by another claim that is used in turn to support some further claim, i.e. the final conclusion or another intermediate conclusion: In the following diagram, statement 4 is an intermediate conclusion in that it is a conclusion in relation to statement 5 but is a premise in relation to the final conclusion, i.e. statement 1. An argument with this structure is sometimes called a ''complex'' argument. If there is a single chain of claims containing at least one intermediate conclusion, the argument is sometimes described as a ''serial'' argument or a ''chain'' argument. Each of these structures can be represented by the equivalent "box and line" approach to argument maps. In the following diagram, the ''contention'' is shown at the top, and the boxes linked to it represent supporting ''reasons'', which comprise one or more ''premises''. The green arrow indicates that the two ''reasons'' support the ''contention'': Argument maps can also represent counterarguments. In the following diagram, the two ''objections'' weaken the ''contention'', while the ''reasons'' support the ''premise'' of the objection:


Representing an argument as an argument map


Diagramming written text

A written text can be transformed into an argument map by following a sequence of steps.
Monroe Beardsley Monroe Curtis Beardsley (; December 10, 1915 – September 18, 1985) was an American philosopher of art. Biography Beardsley was born and raised in Bridgeport, Connecticut, and educated at Yale University (B.A. 1936, Ph.D. 1939), where he re ...
's 1950 book ''Practical Logic'' recommended the following procedure: #Separate statements by brackets and number them. #Put circles around the logical indicators. #Supply, in parenthesis, any logical indicators that are left out. #Set out the statements in a diagram in which arrows show the relationships between statements. Beardsley gave the first example of a text being analysed in this way: :Though .html" ;"title="/span>people who talk about the "social significance" of the arts don’t like to admit it">/span>people who talk about the "social significance" of the arts don’t like to admit it/span>, .html" ;"title="/span>music and painting are bound to suffer when they are turned into mere vehicles for propaganda">/span>music and painting are bound to suffer when they are turned into mere vehicles for propaganda/span>. For .html" ;"title="/span>propaganda appeals to the crudest and most vulgar feelings">/span>propaganda appeals to the crudest and most vulgar feelings/span>: (for) .html" ;"title="/span>look at the academic monstrosities produced by the official Nazi painters">/span>look at the academic monstrosities produced by the official Nazi painters/span>. What is more important, .html" ;"title="/span>art must be an end in itself for the artist">/span>art must be an end in itself for the artist/span>, because .html" ;"title="/span>the artist can do the best work only in an atmosphere of complete freedom">/span>the artist can do the best work only in an atmosphere of complete freedom/span>. Beardsley said that the conclusion in this example is statement ②. Statement ④ needs to be rewritten as a declarative sentence, e.g. "Academic monstrosities ereproduced by the official Nazi painters." Statement ① points out that the conclusion isn't accepted by everyone, but statement ① is omitted from the diagram because it doesn't support the conclusion. Beardsley said that the logical relation between statement ③ and statement ④ is unclear, but he proposed to diagram statement ④ as supporting statement ③. More recently, philosophy professor Maralee Harrell recommended the following procedure: #Identify all the claims being made by the author. #Rewrite them as independent statements, eliminating non-essential words. #Identify which statements are premises, sub-conclusions, and the main conclusion. #Provide missing, implied conclusions and implied premises. (This is optional depending on the purpose of the argument map.) #Put the statements into boxes and draw a line between any boxes that are linked. #Indicate support from premise(s) to (sub)conclusion with arrows.


Diagramming as thinking

Argument maps are useful not only for representing and analyzing existing writings, but also for thinking through issues as part of a problem-structuring process or writing process. The use of such argument analysis for thinking through issues has been called "reflective argumentation". An argument map, unlike a decision tree, does not tell how to make a decision, but the process of choosing a coherent position (or reflective equilibrium) based on the structure of an argument map can be represented as a decision tree.


History


The philosophical origins and tradition of argument mapping

In the ''Elements of Logic'', published in 1826 and issued in many subsequent editions, Archbishop Richard Whately gave probably the first form of an argument map, introducing it with the suggestion that "many students probably will find it a very clear and convenient mode of exhibiting the logical analysis of the course of argument, to draw it out in the form of a Tree, or Logical Division". However, the technique did not become widely used, possibly because for complex arguments, it involved much writing and rewriting of the premises. Legal philosopher and theorist John Henry Wigmore produced maps of legal arguments using numbered premises in the early 20th century, based in part on the ideas of 19th century philosopher Henry Sidgwick who used lines to indicate relations between terms.


Anglophone argument diagramming in the 20th century

Dealing with the failure of formal reduction of informal argumentation, English speaking
argumentation theory Argumentation theory, or argumentation, is the interdisciplinary study of how conclusions can be supported or undermined by premises through logical reasoning. With historical origins in logic, dialectic, and rhetoric, argumentation theory, inclu ...
developed diagrammatic approaches to informal reasoning over a period of fifty years.
Monroe Beardsley Monroe Curtis Beardsley (; December 10, 1915 – September 18, 1985) was an American philosopher of art. Biography Beardsley was born and raised in Bridgeport, Connecticut, and educated at Yale University (B.A. 1936, Ph.D. 1939), where he re ...
proposed a form of argument diagram in 1950. His method of marking up an argument and representing its components with linked numbers became a standard and is still widely used. He also introduced terminology that is still current describing ''convergent'', ''divergent'' and ''serial'' arguments. Stephen Toulmin, in his groundbreaking and influential 1958 book ''The Uses of Argument'', identified several elements to an argument which have been generalized. The Toulmin diagram is widely used in educational critical teaching. Whilst Toulmin eventually had a significant impact on the development of informal logic he had little initial impact and the Beardsley approach to diagramming arguments along with its later developments became the standard approach in this field. Toulmin introduced something that was missing from Beardsley's approach. In Beardsley, "arrows link reasons and conclusions (but) no support is given to the implication itself between them. There is no theory, in other words, of inference distinguished from logical deduction, the passage is always deemed not controversial and not subject to support and evaluation". Toulmin introduced the concept of ''warrant'' which "can be considered as representing the reasons behind the inference, the backing that authorizes the link". Beardsley's approach was refined by Stephen N. Thomas, whose 1973 book ''Practical Reasoning In Natural Language'' introduced the term ''linked'' to describe arguments where the premises necessarily worked together to support the conclusion. However, the actual distinction between dependent and independent premises had been made prior to this. The introduction of the linked structure made it possible for argument maps to represent missing or "hidden" premises. In addition, Thomas suggested showing reasons both ''for'' and ''against'' a conclusion with the reasons ''against'' being represented by dotted arrows. Thomas introduced the term ''argument diagram'' and defined ''basic reasons'' as those that were not supported by any others in the argument and the ''final conclusion'' as that which was not used to support any further conclusion.
Michael Scriven Michael John Scriven (; born 1928) is a British-born Australian polymath and academic philosopher, best known for his contributions to the theory and practice of evaluation. Biography Scriven was born in the UK and grew up in Melbourne, Austr ...
further developed the Beardsley-Thomas approach in his 1976 book ''Reasoning''. Whereas Beardsley had said "At first, write out the statements...after a little practice, refer to the statements by number alone" Scriven advocated clarifying the meaning of the statements, listing them and then using a tree diagram with numbers to display the structure. Missing premises (unstated assumptions) were to be included and indicated with an alphabetical letter instead of a number to mark them off from the explicit statements. Scriven introduced counterarguments in his diagrams, which Toulmin had defined as rebuttal. This also enabled the diagramming of "balance of consideration" arguments. In 1998 a series of large-scale argument maps released by Robert E. Horn stimulated widespread interest in argument mapping.


Development of computer-supported argument visualization

Human–computer interaction pioneer
Douglas Engelbart Douglas Carl Engelbart (January 30, 1925 – July 2, 2013) was an American engineer and inventor, and an early computer and Internet pioneer. He is best known for his work on founding the field of human–computer interaction, particularly ...
, in a famous 1962 technical report on intelligence augmentation, envisioned in detail something like argument-mapping software as an integral part of future intelligence-augmenting computer interfaces: In the middle to late 1980s, hypertext software applications that supported argument visualization were developed, including NoteCards and gIBIS; the latter generated an on-screen graphical hypertextual map of an issue-based information system, a model of argumentation developed by Werner Kunz and
Horst Rittel Horst Wilhelm Johannes Rittel (14 July 1930 – 9 July 1990) was a design theorist and university professor. He is best known for popularizing the concept of ''wicked problem'', but his influence on design theory and practice was much wider. ...
in the 1970s. In the 1990s,
Tim van Gelder Tim van Gelder is the co-founder of Austhink Software, an Australian software development company, and the Managing Director of Austhink Consulting. He was born in Australia, and was educated at the University of Melbourne (BA, 1984). He went o ...
and colleagues developed a series of software applications that permitted an argument map's premises to be fully stated and edited in the diagram, rather than in a legend. Van Gelder's first program, Reason!Able, was superseded by two subsequent programs, bCisive and Rationale. Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, many other software applications were developed for argument visualization. By 2013, more than 60 such software systems existed. In a 2010 survey of computer-supported argumentation, Oliver Scheuer and colleagues noted that one of the differences between these software systems is whether collaboration is supported. In their survey, single-user argumentation systems included Convince Me, iLogos, LARGO, Athena,
Araucaria ''Araucaria'' (; original pronunciation: .ɾawˈka. ɾja is a genus of evergreen coniferous trees in the family Araucariaceae. There are 20 extant species in New Caledonia (where 14 species are endemic, see New Caledonian ''Araucaria ...
, and Carneades; small group argumentation systems included Digalo, QuestMap,
Compendium A compendium (plural: compendia or compendiums) is a comprehensive collection of information and analysis pertaining to a body of knowledge. A compendium may concisely summarize a larger work. In most cases, the body of knowledge will concern a s ...
, Belvedere, and AcademicTalk; community argumentation systems included
Debategraph For argument mapping, a Debategraph is a web-based, collaborative idea visualization tool, focusing on online deliberation about complex public policy issues. It has been used by the White House, the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the Amanpo ...
and Collaboratorium.


Applications

Argument maps have been applied in many areas, but foremost in educational, academic and business settings, including
design rationale A design rationale is an explicit documentation of the reasons behind decisions made when designing a system or artifact. As initially developed by W.R. Kunz and Horst Rittel, design rationale seeks to provide argumentation-based structure to ...
.; Argument maps are also used in
forensic science Forensic science, also known as criminalistics, is the application of science to criminal and civil laws, mainly—on the criminal side—during criminal investigation, as governed by the legal standards of admissible evidence and criminal ...
,
law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vari ...
, and
artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech re ...
. It has also been proposed that argument mapping has a great potential to improve how we understand and execute democracy, in reference to the ongoing evolution of
e-democracy E-democracy (a combination of the words electronic and democracy), also known as digital democracy or Internet democracy, is the use of information and communication technology (ICT) in political and governance processes. The term is bel ...
.


Difficulties with the philosophical tradition

It has traditionally been hard to separate teaching critical thinking from the philosophical tradition of teaching logic and method, and most critical thinking textbooks have been written by philosophers. Informal logic textbooks are replete with philosophical examples, but it is unclear whether the approach in such textbooks transfers to non-philosophy students. There appears to be little statistical effect after such classes. Argument mapping, however, has a measurable effect according to many studies. For example, instruction in argument mapping has been shown to improve the critical thinking skills of business students.


Evidence that argument mapping improves critical thinking ability

There is empirical evidence that the skills developed in argument-mapping-based critical thinking courses substantially transfer to critical thinking done without argument maps. Alvarez's meta-analysis found that such critical thinking courses produced gains of around 0.70 SD, about twice as much as standard critical-thinking courses. The tests used in the reviewed studies were standard critical-thinking tests.


Limitations

When used with students in school, argument maps have limitations. They can "end up looking overly complex" and can increase
cognitive load In cognitive psychology, cognitive load refers to the amount of working memory resources used. There are three types of cognitive load: ''intrinsic'' cognitive load is the effort associated with a specific topic; ''extraneous'' cognitive load refe ...
beyond what is optimal for learning the course content. Creating maps requires extensive coaching and feedback from an experienced argument mapper. Depending on the learning objectives, the time spent coaching students to create good maps may be better spent learning the course content instead of learning to diagram. When the goal is to prompt students to consider other perspectives and counterarguments, the goal may be more easily accomplished with other methods such as discussion, rubrics, and a simple argument framework or simple graphic organizer such as a vee diagram. To maximize the strengths of argument mapping and minimize its limitations in the classroom requires considering at what point in a learning progression the potential benefits of argument mapping would outweigh its potential disadvantages.


Standards


Argument Interchange Format

The Argument Interchange Format, AIF, is an international effort to develop a representational mechanism for exchanging argument resources between research groups, tools, and domains using a semantically rich language. AIF-RDF is the extended ontology represented in the Resource Description Framework Schema (RDFS) semantic language. Though AIF is still something of a moving target, it is settling down.


Legal Knowledge Interchange Format

The Legal Knowledge Interchange Format (LKIF) was developed in the European ESTRELLA project and designed with the goal of becoming a standard for representing and interchanging policy, legislation and cases, including their justificatory arguments, in the legal domain. LKIF builds on and uses the Web Ontology Language (OWL) for representing concepts and includes a reusable basic ontology of legal concepts.


Argdown

Argdown is a Markdown-inspired lightweight markup language for complex argumentation. It is intended for exchanging arguments and argument reconstructions in a universally accessible and highly
human-readable A human-readable medium or human-readable format is any encoding of data or information that can be naturally read by humans. In computing, ''human-readable'' data is often encoded as ASCII or Unicode text, rather than as binary data. In m ...
way. The Argdown syntax is accompanied by tools that facilitate coding and transform Argdown documents into argument maps.Argdown tools include a web browser
sandbox A sandbox is a sandpit, a wide, shallow playground construction to hold sand, often made of wood or plastic. Sandbox or Sand box may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Sandbox (band), a Canadian rock music group * ''Sand ...
editor, an
extension Extension, extend or extended may refer to: Mathematics Logic or set theory * Axiom of extensionality * Extensible cardinal * Extension (model theory) * Extension (predicate logic), the set of tuples of values that satisfy the predicate * Ext ...
for
Visual Studio Code Visual Studio Code, also commonly referred to as VS Code, is a source-code editor made by Microsoft with the Electron Framework, for Windows, Linux and macOS. Features include support for debugging, syntax highlighting, intelligent code complet ...
, and a
command-line A command-line interpreter or command-line processor uses a command-line interface (CLI) to receive commands from a user in the form of lines of text. This provides a means of setting parameters for the environment, invoking executables and pro ...
tool; see


See also

*
Argument technology Argument technology is a sub-field of artificial intelligence that focuses on applying computational techniques to the creation, identification, analysis, navigation, evaluation and visualisation of arguments and debates. In the 1980s and 1990s, p ...
*
Argumentation framework In artificial intelligence and related fields, an argumentation framework is a way to deal with contentious information and draw conclusions from it using formalized arguments. In an abstract argumentation framework, entry-level information is a ...
*
Argumentation scheme In argumentation theory, an argumentation scheme or argument scheme is a template that represents a common type of argument used in ordinary conversation. Many different argumentation schemes have been identified. Each one has a name (for example, ...
*
Bayesian network A Bayesian network (also known as a Bayes network, Bayes net, belief network, or decision network) is a probabilistic graphical model that represents a set of variables and their conditional dependencies via a directed acyclic graph (DAG). Ba ...
*
Collaborative decision-making software Collaborative decision-making (CDM) software is a software application or module that helps to coordinate and disseminate data and reach consensus among work groups. CDM software coordinates the functions and features required to arrive at timely ...
*
Dialogue mapping The issue-based information system (IBIS) is an argumentation-based approach to clarifying wicked problems—complex, ill-defined problems that involve multiple stakeholders. Diagrammatic visualization using IBIS notation is often called issue ...
* Flow (policy debate) *
Informal fallacy Informal fallacies are a type of incorrect argument in natural language. The source of the error is not just due to the ''form'' of the argument, as is the case for formal fallacies, but can also be due to their ''content'' and ''context''. Fallac ...
*
Logic and dialectic Formal scientists have attempted to combine logic and dialectic through formalisation. These attempts include pre-formal and partially formal treatises on argument and dialectic, systems based on defeasible reasoning, and systems based on game s ...
*
Logic of argumentation The logic of argumentation (LA) is a formalised description of the ways in which humans reason and argue about propositions. It is used, for example, in computer artificial intelligence systems in the fields of medical diagnosis and prognosis, a ...
*
Natural deduction In logic and proof theory, natural deduction is a kind of proof calculus in which logical reasoning is expressed by inference rules closely related to the "natural" way of reasoning. This contrasts with Hilbert-style systems, which instead use a ...
a logical system with argument map-like notation * Practical arguments * Rhetorical structure theory *
Semantic tableau In proof theory, the semantic tableau (; plural: tableaux, also called truth tree) is a decision procedure for sentential and related logics, and a proof procedure for formulae of first-order logic. An analytic tableau is a tree structure computed ...
* Wikidebate


Notes


References

* * A shorter version was published as ''Thinking Straight''; the most recent edition is: * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *


Further reading

* * * Free online resources for teachers and students interested in argument mapping in philosophy. * * * * * * {{Mindmaps Argument mapping Arguments Diagrams Knowledge representation Logic Philosophical analogies Problem structuring methods