Argument Mapping and Critical Thinking

Critical thinking is about making good judgments. Much of critical thinking involves dealing with arguments.

To be a good critical thinker you must be skilled at articulating and evaluating arguments.

Argument mapping helps us carry out these tasks. Argument maps are box-and-line diagrams laying out the arguments for and against some claim.

Rationale™ is software for argument mapping. It was designed to support Critical Thinking skills by helping us

  • build,
  • modify,
  • evaluate, and
  • communicate arguments.

 

 

water argument

A sample argument map from Rationale™, in "Reasoning" mode.