Philosophers create and critically assess arguments mainly because of uncertainty: there is no real consensus about things like God’s existence, the nature of truth, the nature of knowledge, moral right and wrong, the best form of government, what it means to exist, and whether our existence has meaning (much less what it might be!).
After all, when there is consensus about the correct answers to philosophical problems, they cease to be philosophical problems! No - philosophical questions are characterized by a lack of consensus and disagreement among reasonable people who are part of a community committed to the principle of charity in interpretation.
This means that for any given philosophical question, there will be at least two reasonable positions for which there are reasonable arguments, about which reasonable people may disagree. Often, there are more than two reasonable positions!
The existence of multiple reasonable positions explains why it’s both useful and fun to think of every philosophical argument as a decision tree, with options that take the thinker is different directions and which point to different conclusions. Philosophical artuments are, in effect, “choose your own adventure” stories!
What better way to explore philosophy, then, that through philosophical arguments presented as nonlinear interactive narratives (NINs).
So, what's all this, then?
What's a NIN?
Nonlinear: a narrative structure that has multiple possible paths.
Interactive: you choose the path you want to take!
Narrative: any connected sequence of ideas! Note that this term is not being used in the narrow sense of a "story," but much more broadly. Philosophical arguments are narratives in this broad sense!
There are four basic nonlinear narrative structures (NINS):
These four types are distinguished by the number of endpoints they have:
Infinite NINS are either loops or stories for which there exists a mechanism for extending them infinitely (and hence are only potentially infinite). Infinite NINS thus have no endpoints.
Unified NINS have only one endpoint, but contain “gauntlets” – two or more branches that take the reader down a unique path, but which always lead, one way or another, to the single endpoint. Note that linear stories – the most common kind of narrative in both fiction and nonfiction – are unified, but are not NINS. Traditional linear narratives are unified linear stories. They might still be interactive, but in that case the reader would just be turning pages to get to the next chapter and, ultimately, the last page of the story. That’s not much interaction! So, let’s call this traditional narrative structure a unified linear narrative structure, or a unified LNS.
True branching NINS have two or more endpoints. This is the most common form for the original “choose your own adventure” stories.
Mixed NINS are true branching NINS that also have an infinite branch. In practice, that branch is most often going to be a loop, but it could be a branch for which there exists a mechanism for extending it infinitely.
What's up with the logo?
The four squares in the logo represent two things:
Philosophy today is often described as having four branches: logic, ethics, epistemology, and metaphysics. This is sometimes referred to as the "four branch model" of philosophy.
There are four basic nonlinear narrative structures: unified, true branching, infinte, and mixed.