After many months / years of development, we’re pleased to finally launch and showcase our latest product – aMap – last Wednesday at Social Innovation Camp.
It was nice to finally reveal aMap to a friendly audience + get some initial feedback on it.
For those that don’t know, aMap is short for ‘argument map’. The idea’s very simple – to promote the art of arguing by mapping out complex debates in a simple visual format.
aMaps come in two different formats:
- Printed pocket-sized aMaps, which you can buy here
- Interactive personalised aMaps, which you can make here and check out an example below
aMap has been developed by a team led by me (Chris Quigley). Initial concepts were developed as part of an academic project in partnership with Perry Walker from the new economics foundation, and various wonderful brains from the LSE (see below for more info)
To learn more about aMap, read Chris Quigley’s blog article entitled “What and Why?”
The theory
aMaps are based around the same structure as “informal logic” – this is the logic people use to argue in everyday life. Informal logic has a four-tiered structure:
- Your position (I think . . .) – what you think overall
- Propositions (Because . . .) – reasons that support your position
- Arguments (As . . .) – supporting arguments that back up each of your propositions
- Evidence (Supported by . . .) – supporting evidence to back up your arguments
When put into use, you get something like this:
State their position “I think Man U are the best team in the Premiership”
State their proposition (reason) “Because they’re the most successful on the pitch”
State supporting argument “As they win the most silverware and have the best players”
State supporting evidence “In 2008 Man U won the Champions League and Ronaldo won best European Player of the year.”
The use
We’ve launched aMap as our first consumer product. The printed series of aMaps are being sold across Amazon.com at the moment and will be sold in shops soon (hopefully!) They cover a mixture of weighty and not so weighty arguments including: Does God exist? Cat or dog? Is modern art rubbish? Beatles or Stones? Are children worth it? The internet version allows people to create their own personalised interactive argument widgets so they can argue with friend (or foe) online.
We also see aMap as being a great debate tool for use by organisations tasked with engaging the wider public in debates on complex issues.
If you need any more info on aMap, drop us a line – 0845 638 1848 – or email Chris “AT” Delib.co.uk
