THE WORKBENCH FOR STRUCTURED THOUGHT
Take your beliefs apart. See what they stand on.
Axiom turns an argument into a diagram of claims — supported, opposed, grounded in cited evidence — then checks the structure for its weak points.
The demo opens a seeded workspace — no account needed.
Some things in the world are evidently in motion.
Whatever is in motion is moved by another.
An unmoved first mover exists.
But inertia needs no mover.
HOW IT WORKS
Claim. Connect. Cite.
STEP 1
Claim
Break the argument into claims — axioms, premises, conclusions, objections — each with its own confidence.
Suffering is bad, wherever it occurs.
axiom
We can prevent much suffering at little cost.
premise
STEP 2
Support & oppose
Wire claims together with typed relations. Link premises that only work jointly; steelman the other side with objections.
STEP 3
Cite evidence
Attach sources with excerpts and locators, so every premise shows exactly what it rests on.
Right actions are those that promote happiness.
Mill, Utilitarianism (1863) · ch. 2
“Actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness.”
THE LIBRARY
Start from a famous argument.
Every template is a full, cited reconstruction — Aquinas, Pascal, Mill, and more. Read one now; fork it into your workspace when you sign in.
Argument · metaphysics · philosophy-of-religion
Aquinas' First Way: The Argument from Motion
Thomas Aquinas' first proof of God's existence, from Summa Theologiae I q.2 a.3. Observed motion (change) is the actualization of potential; nothing actualizes its own potential, and an essentially ordered series of movers cannot regress infinitely, so there must be an unmoved first mover. Includes the Newtonian inertia objection and the infinite-regress challenge.
12 claims
Worldview · ethics · practical-philosophy
Classical Utilitarianism
The moral worldview of Bentham and Mill: pleasure and the absence of pain are the only intrinsic goods, everyone's well-being counts equally, and right action maximizes aggregate happiness. Mapped down to applied conclusions on famine relief (Singer) and animal welfare, with the utility monster, transplant, and demandingness objections.
15 claims
Argument · decision-theory · epistemology
Pascal's Wager
Blaise Pascal's decision-theoretic argument that, since reason cannot settle whether God exists, prudence requires wagering on belief: an infinite reward at finite stakes dominates the alternatives. Mapped with the many-gods objection and the inauthentic-belief objection, plus Pascal's own reply that practice cultivates belief.
11 claims
THE ANALYSIS
Checks you can verify by hand.
No model grades your reasoning. The analysis engine is deterministic — the same framework yields the same numbers, every run.
Circular support — cycle detection over supports edges, reported with the full path.
Unsupported premises — leaves with no support and no citations, ranked by how much rests on them.
Propagated confidence — linked premises multiply, convergent support combines, opposition subtracts.
Load-bearing claims — which claim carries the most downstream weight.
ANALYSIS REPORT
Aquinas’ First Way
- Circular support
- none
- Unsupported premises
- 2 — P3, P6
- Live contradictions
- 1 — O1 ↔ C1
- Load-bearing claim
- P4 · carries 6
- Propagated confidence
- ∴C1 · 58
Weakest link dominates: lift P4 and watch ∴C1 move with it.