Chris Quigley

Aristotle’s rhetoric (ars rhetorica) was a treatise (collection of essays) on “the art of rhetoric”.  Aristotle was particularly interested in how rhetoric could be used to persuade using “knowledge” rather than “emotion”
His treatise was written to counter the Sophists, like Gorgias and Isocrates, who used emotion in poetry to manipulate people’s feelings and thoughts.  Against [...]

What is critical thinking?
Critical thinking is the process of deliberate evaluation of the “thinking process”.
What does critical thinking involve?
In 1941, Edward Glaser identified three core characteristics of critical thinking:

A general “analytical state of mind” that means a person is disposed to questioning and analysing issues

An understanding of how arguments are structured and how logic works

Skills [...]

So things are cranking up here @ argument towers.  Over the last few months we’ve been planning our next steps, which is largely based around getting aMaps into shops and shouting louder about the concept (i.e. getting some wider press coverage).
Shops – Huge thanks to Emma who’s spear-heading our launch of aMaps into shops.  So [...]

And so the time has come (at last!). Tonight we (Delib) host a debate in Parliament on the subject: “The Internet: Saviour or Corruptor of Democracy?” For those of you who are not able to attend, you can follow the whole debate live on Twitter via hash tag #idebate or via our Delib twitter account.
Hosted [...]

The most exciting new place to sell aMaps is Ampleforth College and Monastery (my old school).  The “Does God exist?” aMap title was mostly inspired by my Theology lessons with Fr Timothy, so am super pleased that the Ampleforth shop is now stocking them.
When I was up in Yorkshire this weekend I popped into Ampleforth [...]

After a couple of months of sorting out point of sale plans for aMap – and most importantly, sorting out the “call to action” messaging, we’re ready to take aMap into shops!
The most recent shop to stock aMap is the Aarnolfini bookshop in Bristol – which is v.exciting.  So far they’ve been selling aMaps without [...]

So since our online launch back in Feb, we’ve been busy beavering away developing up the aMap product ready for full launch in to shops.  One of the key things we’ve been wrestling with is our “point of sale” device – or as we like to call them “Argument pods” – which we plan to [...]

I was sent these photos earlier in the week of some pretty happy customers enjoying the delights of aMaps (in slightly alternative ways)

Argument mapping is the visualisation of arguments according to “informal logic” – i.e. the logic structure used in everyday life – rather than formal logic – i.e. the kind that makes your mind boggle with its mathematical-like complexity, and the kind that made me fail my Philosophy exams at uni!
Informal logic is based around [...]

I’ve seen various people playing around with argument mapping over the last few years, but these guys at Argunet seem to have developed the most comprehensive online system so far.
Having had a play around the with the site and the software, it looks like a good crack at developing an interactive system – but is [...]