Verbal and visual causal arguments

The present paper analyzes how verbalizations and visualizations can be used to justify and dispute causal claims. The analysis is based on a taxonomy of 27 causal arguments as they appear in ordinary language. It is shown how arguments from spatio-temporal contiguity, covariation, counterfactual necessity, and causal mechanisms, to name only a few, are visualized in persuasive uses of tables, graphs, time series, causal diagrams, drawings, maps, animations, photos, movies, and simulations. The discussion centers on how these visual media limit the argumentative moves of justifying, disputing, and qualifying claims; how they constrain the representation of observational, explanatory, and abstract knowledge in the premises of causal arguments; and how they support and externalize argument-specific inferences, namely generalizations, comparisons, mental simulations, and causal explanations. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.