Escritoire\Writing

The Pacisco Editor interface facilitates the recording of arguments.  A browser-based interface to Pacisco, it presents a simple template based on the Toulmin model of argument that the user fills in to make and substantiate a claim.  It is embedded in the Pacisco Escritoire (writing desk) interface that provided additional functionality.

The elements of the argument template are:

• Field: the broad field within which the argument is located, e.g. economics, law, ethics, etc.  An argument can contribute to more than one field.
• Claim: the asserted position that the case supports or rebuts; a proposition.
• Case: the supporting or rebutting body of the argument.  There may be more than one case associated with a claim.  A claim may be declared ‘self evident’ or give justification consisting of:
  • Grounds: the evidence to support or rebut an argument; a proposition or a reference.
  • Warrant: justification of the relevance of the grounds to the claim; a proposition.

All cases have a:

• Rating:  An assessment of the credibility of the case, expressed as a degree of belief or probability.

The claim, grounds and warrant are all expressed as propositions, i.e. statements capable of being assigned a truth value.  Propositions may be atomic or compound.  Compound propositions consist of simple propositions linked by the logical operators; ‘and’, ‘or’, ‘either_or’, and ‘not’.  Simple propositions are succinct declarative sentences not containing the logical operators.

In grounds it is possible to give a reference rather than a proposition; i.e. a link to published material external to Pacisco.

More information on each of these template fields is available under the Escritoire\Writing menu above or in Escritoire by enabling help and clicking on the element.