ARGUMENT DIAGRAMMING IN LOGIC, LAW AND ARTIFICAL INTELLIGENCE1 Authors

In this paper, we present a survey of the development of the technique of argument diagramming covering not only the fields in which it originated informal logic, argumentation theory, evidence law and legal reasoning – but also more recent work in applying and developing it in computer science and artificial intelligence. Beginning with a simple example of an everyday argument, we present an analysis of it visualised as an argument diagram constructed using a software tool. In the context of a brief history of the development of diagramming, it is then shown how argument diagrams have been used to analyze and work with argumentation in law, philosophy and artificial intelligence. 1 Douglas Walton and Chris Reed would like to thank the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and The Leverhulme Trust in the UK for a research grant, ‘Argumentation Schemes in Natural and Artificial Communication’ that supported the work in this paper. Fabrizio Macagno would like to thank the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore for a research grant.