Argument Mapping – A Tool For Improving Your Critical Thinking
Argument mapping is a way to visually show the logical structure of arguments, where “arguments constitute a body of evidence in relation to some proposition (an idea that is true or false)”. It does so by having the user break up an argument into its constituent claims, and use lines, boxes, colors and location to indicate the relationships between the various parts. Thus, a map is produced which illustrates why a particular conclusion was reached by clearly outlining its reasons and objections. The resulting argument map allows us to see exactly how each part of an argument is related to every other part. Typically an argument map is a “box and arrow” diagram with boxes corresponding to propositions and arrows corresponding to relationships such as evidential support. Argument mapping is similar to other mapping activities such as mind mapping and concept mapping, but focuses on the logical, evidential or inferential Continue reading