Assessing Arguments in ReasonSpace

To assess an argument, you must assess its inference and all its premises. ReasonSpace walks you through the process of assessing arguments on a map. When you're looking at a published map, there will be a button to assess it in the upper right corner of the screen.

When you're in assessment mode, you'll see an area on the right of the screen displaying assessment scales for all the items on the map. Each proposition will have a single scale, and each inference will have two—one for the inference itself, and one for the whole argument of which it is a part.

You should use the scales to assess the epistemic status of each premise. In doing this you are rating how near you are to knowing that the premise is true. If you think you do know it, then set the scale in the right-most region. (There's some space within this region to allow for the fact, that among things we know, we may be more sure of some than others.) If you're not sure that the premise is true, but think it's probably true, then mark it as [Epistemic_status#Probable].

and assess each inference according to its strength—i.e., by how strongly the argument would support their conclusions if all of its premises were certain. 

Once all the premises and the inference for a given argument have been assessed, the system will calculate a strength for the argument as a whole, and if this is the only argument for its conclusion it will determine the epistemic status of the conclusion accordingly.

If there are multiple arguments for a conclusion, the system will set the conclusion to the strength of the strongest argument for it. You still have the option to set the strength higher, because sometimes the strength of multiple arguments can compound to yield a stronger overall case for a conclusion than any one argument does alone. (You'll have to use your judgment to determine whether this is so in any particular case.)

Objections and Counterarguments

Objections and counterarguments have the effect of putting an upper limit on the assessment of the items to which they point. The stronger the objection or counter-argument is, the lower the upper limit is.