Organizing Arguments

Question:

Does Time Exist?

Claim:

Time does Exist.

Counter-Claim:

Time does not Exist.

Argument:

Human life is measured by time therefore time exists as a measurement.

Counter-Argument:

Measurement is not a thing that can exist apart from the measuring device

Argument:

Any person can answer the question “What time is it?” therefore time exists in the persons mind.

Counter-Argument:

Thoughts cannot exist

Sample conceptual map of a philosophical question.

Evidence:

Death

Evidence:

A clock

Evidence:

Plato, Timaeus: “Time is like an empty container through which events flow”

Evidence:

Aristotle, Physics: “Time cannot be understood without respect to things and events”

Evidence:

Kant, Critique: “Time is a category of the mind, noumenal, not phenomenal”

Evidence:

Bacon, Novum Organum: “Thoughts are abstractions of the mind”

Argument:

The concept of Time is a way for the human mind to understand the world, therefore time does not exist.

Counter-Argument:

The human mind as part of the human body moves through time and eventually decays

Evidence:

Death