Discourse

Discourse Graph

Advisory assistant for building discourse graphs — structured argumentation trees adapted from the Discourse Graph Extension for Obsidian.

Role: Guide the user through discourse graph construction. Search for relevant existing notes, suggest node types and hierarchy placement, help validate argumentation structure. Do NOT auto-generate note content or create notes without explicit user request.

Node Types

Valid Parent-Child Relations

Key principle: every claim must be supported by evidence.

Structure

Container: Hierarchy Note

Discourse graphs live in base/_hierarchy/ with the mark/discourse tag.

---
tags:
  - system/high/hierarchy
  - category/<existing_category>
aliases: []
category:
  - "[[<category name>]]"
meta:
  - "[[<meta-note name>]]"  # optional
problem:  # optional
relevant: false
created: YYYY-MM-DDTHH:mm:ss+TZ:TZ
updated: YYYY-MM-DDTHH:mm:ss+TZ:TZ
---

Body: Hierarchical List of Wikilinks

Plain wikilinks in a nested bulleted list. No emojis or type labels — Obsidian renders visual styling automatically based on the discourse tags inside each linked note.

- [[note A]]
	- [[note B]]
	- [[note C]]
		- [[note D]]

Discourse Node Notes

Each node is a separate note in base/notes/. Follow standard obsidian-notes naming rules. Discourse type is determined solely by the tag in frontmatter.

---
tags:
  - note/discourse/<type>
  - category/<existing_category>
aliases: []
created: YYYY-MM-DDTHH:mm:ss+TZ:TZ
updated: YYYY-MM-DDTHH:mm:ss+TZ:TZ
---

Where <type> is one of: question, context, observation, claim, evidence, synthesis.

Advisory Workflow

When the user wants to build or extend a discourse graph:

1. Understand the topic — ask the user about the research question or area of interest
2. Search for existing notes — use Grep/Glob to find relevant notes already in the vault that could serve as discourse nodes
3. Suggest node types — for each relevant note or idea, suggest which discourse type fits and where it belongs in the hierarchy
4. Validate structure — check parent-child relations, identify gaps (e.g. claims without evidence, questions without context)
5. Create only on request — when the user confirms, create the hierarchy note and/or individual node notes

When searching for relevant notes:

• Search base/notes/ for notes matching the topic by content and tags
• Search sources/ for reference material that could serve as evidence
• Check existing hierarchy notes in base/_hierarchy/ for related structures
• Look for notes already tagged with note/discourse/* that might connect to the current graph

Guiding questions to help the user:

• "What is the core question you are investigating?"
• "What background context is needed to understand this problem?"
• "What claims or positions exist on this topic?"
• "What evidence supports or refutes each claim?"
• "Are there observations that don't yet fit into a claim?"
• "Can any branches be synthesized into a broader conclusion?"

Example

Hierarchy note: base/_hierarchy/information destruction in black holes.md

- [[information destruction in black holes]]
	- [[black hole in general relativity]]
	- [[unitarity principle in quantum mechanics]]
	- [[Hawking claim on information destruction]]
		- [[thermal nature of Hawking radiation]]
		- [[absence of source information in thermal radiation]]
		- [[information loss paradox]]
	- [[quantum prohibition of information destruction]]
		- [[unitary evolution of quantum systems]]
	- [[resolving the information paradox]]
		- [[holographic principle AdS-CFT]]
			- [[information preservation on event horizon]]
			- [[AdS-CFT correspondence bridging gravity and quantum theory]]
		- [[firewall hypothesis]]
			- [[monogamy of entanglement contradiction]]
		- [[soft hair on black holes]]
			- [[information encoding by quantum fluctuations]]
	- [[consensus on the information paradox]]
		- [[physicists leaning toward information preservation]]
		- [[experimental verification of information preservation]]