Michael Hoffmann
Associate Professor

Habilitation, Technische Universitat Dresden, Philosophy
Ph.D. and M.A., Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat Munchen, Philosophy

ichael Hoffmann is an Associate Professor in the School of Public Policy. His research focuses on diagrammatic reasoning and argument visualization. Diagrammatic reasoning is reasoning by means of external representations which visualize in particular structures and relations. Dr. Hoffmann is especially interested in the following questions:

• How can diagrammatic reasoning support reflection, learning, communication, conflict resolution, and creativity?
• How to design representational systems for diagrammatic reasoning that are optimized for these purposes?
• What are the cognitive and semiotic conditions of diagrammatic reasoning? [Read more].

Based on this research, Hoffmann developed in recent years Logical Argument Mapping (LAM), a method of argument visualization that is supposed to fulfill the following functions:

• in educational settings: to acquire the ability to argue and to learn critical thinking and some basics in logic
• to facility communication, collaboration, and reflection on highly complex issues in science, across scientific disciplines, between science and the public, and in policy and decision making
• to support conflict resolution and cross-cultural understanding by visualizing the inferential structure of framing processes that determine how parties to a conflict make sense of what is going on. [Read more]

Results are published in journals such as Foundations of Science, Informal Logic, Allgemeine Zeitschrift fur Philosophie, International Journal of Conflict Management, Semiotica, Studies in Philosophy and Education, Educational Studies in Mathematics, and Journal fur Mathematik-Didaktik.

Formerly, he was a member of the following research groups:

• 2004: "Cultural Historical Approach to Thinking at the University of Victoria" (CHAT@UVIC), Canada, directed by Wolff-Michael Roth
• 1994-2003: "Semiotic and Epistemological Foundations of Learning Mathematics," at the interdisciplinary Institute of Mathematics Education (IDM) at the University of Bielefeld, Germany, directed by Michael Otte, and
• 1992-1993: "Cultural History of the Perception of Nature" at the Kulturwissenschaftliches Institut des Landes NRW in Essen, Germany, directed by K.M. Meyer-Abich.