Issue

"What question or problem are we trying to resolve through argument?"

This is World Alzheimer's Day

In a nutshell

The issue sits within a field, domain, or topic: e.g. relationships, environment, politics, economics, science, culture, Pokemon, etc.
But the issue itself is a specific question or problem within that field: e.g. "Should we ban cars from the inner city?"

For hundreds of years, botanists have collected plants to describe species and keep in herbaria across the world. But while physical plant specimens are irreplaceable, photographs of plants are also an invaluable resource for botanical research, conservation and education.

Photographs of plants capture information that can be lost from dead, dried plants, such as flower colour. They also provide ecological context and form the cornerstone of many field guides and education resources. [...]

Unfortunately, and perhaps surprisingly, many plants have never been photographed in the field.

"Thousands of our native plants have no public photographs available. Here’s why that matters."

Issue types

Causal issue: "What will happen if we ban cars?"
Proposal issue: "What should we do about traffic in downtown Beaverton?"
Valuational issue: "Is banning cars the best idea we have?"
Definitional issue: "Is this a ban or a limit?"
Ethical issue: "Is it right to restrict residents' ability to drive in town?"

“History is written by the victors” is an old saying. Is it true? What about for those who suffered “ collateral damage” as with Japanese Americans during World War II—because they looked like the enemy? As the Nikkei (persons of Japanese ancestry outside Japan) culturally Americanized over the 20th century, were they to be forever burdened with historical accounts of their WWII experience written in euphemistic and misleading vocabulary?

The Power of Words

Going deeper

An issue will have a whole bunch of background context (e.g. which city/cities are we talking about, what's the traffic, who are the stakeholders).
But to be argument-worthy the issue needs to be relevant and contested.
Relevance is about interest, timeliness, and urgency.
- Why is this issue worth our attention? Why now? Why is it an issue at all?
- (E.g. the city is choked with traffic, residents and businesses are complaining, economic and environmental indicators are declining.)
Contestedness is about opposing points of view
- If everyone already agrees on an issue, there's no need to make an argument—we can get away with claims and reasons alone. (E.g. "We should ban cars because other cities with car bans have thrived.")
- However, if there is good-faith disagreement or uncertainty, then we need to develop arguments.
- (If the disagreement is in bad faith, then argument won't help because the stated issue is not the real issue.)
Arguments usually spend time developing the issue to make sure everyone understands the problem to be solved and why it's important.

Honda traffic ad

Issues can be general or specific

This is an important distinction!

General issues will lead to abstract, policy-level arguments.
Specific issues will lead to concrete, implementation-level arguments.

For example:

General: "Should inner cities ban cars?"
More specific: "Should we ban cars from downtown Beaverton?"
Very specific: "Should we ban Jerry from driving his replica tank in downtown Beaverton?"

In Frankenstories

In a Balderdash-style game, players derive the issue from the stimulus image.
The issue will be informed by whatever argument type you specify.
Generally, players should establish the issue's relevance in R1.
They can imply contestedness to begin with and make it more explicit in the rebuttal round (R4) by identifying other stakeholders and their concerns.

Example: Boxing World; Christmas 2023 Edition. Table of Contents:

Teaching Argument Writing with Frankenstories