Navigate interactive argument maps to understand your own position, others' views, and make informed decisions.
Browse our public gallery of argument maps or create your own on any debate that matters to you—from politics to philosophy to workplace decisions.
Navigate visual networks where each argument supports, attacks, or cites others. See how ideas connect across cultures and history.
Discover where your beliefs fit in the broader landscape. Share your maps to help others understand the full picture too.
Explore diverse perspectives across topics, cultures, and time periods
Terminally ill adults should be allowed assisted death with safeguards
The UK parliamentary debate around the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill—this is a small argument map, with source material only comprising Kim Leadbeater MP's opening speech and interventions. Future work: additional parliamentarian speeches, and journalistic articles.
Stay up to date with the latest features and improvements to Controvis
We're excited to announce the open beta of community editing is now available to all users! This allows anyone to contribute to our growing atlas of human disagreement.
Create and contribute new arguments to existing maps, expanding the scope of debates with fresh perspectives.
Link arguments together by showing how they support or attack each other, building comprehensive argument networks.
Organize arguments with relevant categories and tags to make them easier to find and understand.
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Controvis is a free site created by Dr. Thomas C. King, to map and understand complex debates. We are building a community seeking to document and understand interesting human disagreements—facing head-on the fascinating but complex landscape of controversial topics across history and cultures.
We are building an atlas of interesting argument maps that show how positions connect and clash. Our collaborative approach preserves nuance and clarifies complex debates. Everyone is welcome to join this collective effort to build an open atlas of human disagreement.
Citizens navigating polarizing topics, educators, researchers, and anyone seeking to understand their own and others' positions in disagreements beyond their echo chamber.
As the creator of Controvis, I see this as a community project that we'll build together. I'm Thomas C. King, and I hold a PhD in formal logic with over 10 years of experience as a software engineer in industry and academia. Throughout my academic career, I've published papers in top AI conferences and prestigious journals, with my work accumulating around 1,000 citations. One of my papers was referenced in a UK House of Lords report. I've given numerous talks on the subjects of AI, ethics and argumentation, and completed postdoctoral research at Lancaster University and Oxford University.
During my postdoc at Oxford, I researched the intersection of AI and society, where I encountered increasingly polarized views on technology's impact. These experiences—my PhD work in formal logic and my Oxford research on society—have come together to influence this initiative.
I observed that while powerful theoretical tools existed for mapping complex disagreements, what was missing was accessible content and a way to share these maps widely. In a world where debates often become echo chambers of like-minded opinions, this gap seemed particularly important to address collectively. This insight inspired Controvis—an open atlas of human disagreement designed for all of us to understand perspectives beyond our own bubbles and navigate polarizing topics with greater clarity and nuance.
I'm excited to develop this platform together with a community of curious minds. If you're interested in contributing, have ideas to share, or simply want to discuss the project, please connect with me on LinkedIn or send us an email at [email protected]—I'd love to hear from you!
We are community-driven, so our plans depend on what the community needs. Here's what we're planning to build next
Work together with other users to build comprehensive argument maps on complex topics.
Track changes and roll back edits when needed with full version history.
Find semantically similar arguments and argument maps.
Historical snapshots of argument maps
Geographic and social context filters for arguments across cultures
Compute which arguments are logically acceptable given selected argument stances
Anonymous data on user opinions around arguments
Argument maps organized and verified by subject matter experts
Cross-referencing of arguments across multiple sources to uncover shared ideological positions