Towards a diagrammatic classification

Abstract

In this article I present and discuss some criteria to provide a diagrammatic classification. Such a classification is of use for exploring in detail the domain of diagrammatic reasoning. Diagrams can be classified in terms of the use we make of them-static or dynamic-and of the correspondence between their space and the space of the data they are intended to represent. The investigation is not guided by the opposition visual vs. non-visual, but by the idea that there is a continuous interaction between diagrams and language. Diagrammatic reasoning is characterized by a duality, since it refers both to an object, the diagram, having its spatial characteristics, and to a subject, the user, who interprets them. A particular place in the classification is occupied by constructional diagrams, which exhibit for the user instructions for the application of some procedures. Diagrammatic classification239

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