In addition to Venn diagrams, I also discussed Toulmin argument maps in this week’s podcast, including the following:
This simple Toulmin map argues that since the sun is going down, you should put on a sweater. In this case, “You should put on a sweater” is the Claim for the argument, i.e., the thing I want you to believe or do as the result of my argument. And “The sun is going down” is the basis for my Claim (called the Grounds). The Warrant (which says “It gets cold when the sun goes down”) is what links my Grounds to my Claim, providing a reason why the two are connected.
In the first diagram, the Grounds, Claim and Warrant resemble a logical syllogism, but statements in a Toulmin diagram do not need to contain or be connected only by logic. In this example (which we also described in the podcast), the Grounds that “The Star Spangled Banner is playing” leads to the Claim that “You should take your hat off” via a Warrant that is an appeal to tradition, rather than logic (that Americans traditionally take their hat off when the national anthem is playing).
This illustrates how Toulmin maps can be used to diagram arguments people often make that do not just rely on logic alone to make a case.
Finally, we used this Toulmin map to show how you can identify where an argument might contain problems or errors.
In this case, both the Grounds and Warrant can easily be attacked for assuming that just because some of our best Presidents were lawyers that lawyers make the best Presidents.
We’ll be making more use of Toulmin maps to try to make sense of some of the more complex arguments that will be presented to us during the course of this year’s Presidential campaign.
Tomorrow, I will lay out an example of how we can do this with a look at one of the first negative campaign ads (this one having to do with Mitt Romney’s role in Bain Capital), rendered as a Toulmin diagram.
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