A Brief Guide to Argument Mapping
Shamik Dasgupta January 15, 2018
1. Introduction
We all have opinions and views. Sometimes we support our views with arguments. By an argument I mean a reason to believe the view in question. Argument maps are visual representations of these arguments.
Suppose you believe that it’s wrong to eat meat, and you support your view with the following speech:
“Look, it’s wrong to eat meat. Why? Because eating meat causes animal pain, and it’s wrong to cause animal pain.”
Congratulations, you just gave an argument! We can represent the argument visually as follows:
Map 1: