Computational models of argumentation

The computational study of argumentation concerns two aspects: reasoning and dialogue.

Argumentation as a form of reasoning makes explicit the reasons for the conclusions that are drawn and how conflicts between reasons are resolved. Systems for argumentation-based inference were orginally developed in the field of nonmonotonic logic, which formalises qualitative reasoning with incomplete, uncertain or inconsistent information. Argument-based systems have been very successful as nonmonotonic logics, since they are based on very natural concepts, such as argument, counterargument, rebuttal and defeat. An early overview of this field is my handbook chapter with Gerard Vreeswijk.

My first contribution to this field (with Giovanni Sartor) was a system with the first published argument game for grounded semantics, and with one of the first mechanisms for arguing about preferences (Prakken & Sartor 1997). Currently I am working on An abstract framework for argumentation with structured arguments (now called the ASPIC+ framework), in which I try to integrate the work of Dung, Pollock, Vreeswijk, and others. Some recent work on ASPIC+ is with Sanjay Modgil, e.g. our AI Journal 2013 paper and a 2014 tutorial paper. I am also interested in the relation between models of abstract and structured argumentation; see e.g. my ECAI 2014 paper.

In models of inter-agent dialogue, argumentation is important when a conflict of opinion arises between negotiating or collaborating agents. Argumentation as a kind of dialogue provides a natural mechanism for the resolution of such disagreements. In my Synthese 2001 article on dynamic disputes I studied argument games in which agents dynamically exchange arguments in settings with distributed information. Among other things, I defined a structural notion of relevance of dialogue utterances. In my JLC 2005 article on Coherence and Flexibility in Dialogue Games for Argumentation I extended this work to dialogue games with richer communication languages. In 2006 I wrote an overview of work on Formal systems for persuasion dialogue.

Future:

• 2nd International Workshop on Dialogue, Explanation and Argumentation in Human-Agent Interaction (DEXAHAI 2020).
  Santiago de Compostella (Spain), 7 September 2020 (now online because of corona).

• 8th International Conference on Computational Models of Argument (COMMA 2020).
  Perugia (Italy), 8-11 September 2020 (now online because of corona).

• 3rd Workshop on Argument Strength (ARGSTRENGTH 2020).
  Koblenz (Germany), 12-14 October 2020. Cancelled/postponed because of corona.

Past:

• International Conferences on Computational Models of Argument (COMMA). Liverpool 2006, Toulouse 2008, Desenzano del Garda 2010, Vienna 2012, Pitlochry 2014, Potsdam 2016, Warsaw 2018, Perugia 2020.
• Workshops on Computational Dialectics: AAAI'94 ECAI'2000
• Workshops on Computational Models of Natural Argument: Lyon 2002 Acapulco 2003 Valencia 2004 Edinburgh 2005 Riva del Garda 2006 Hyderabad 2007 Patras 2008 Pasadena 2009 Lissabon 2010 San Francisco 2011 Montpellier 2012 Rome 2013 Krakow 2014 Bertinoro 2015 London 2017.
• Workshops on Argumentation in Multi-Agent Systems (ArgMas): New York 2004 Utrecht 2005 Hakodate 2006 Hawaii 2007 Estoril 2008 Budapest 2009 Toronto 2010 Taipeh 2011 Valencia 2012 St. Paul 2013 Paris 2014. Istanbul 2015
• International Workshops on the Theory and Applications of Formal Argumentation (TAFA): Barcelona 2011 Beijing 2013 Buenos Aires 2015 Melbourne 2017.
• International Conferences on Agreement Technologies (AT): Dubrovnik 2012 Beijing 2013 Beijing 2013.
• Special NMR sessions on Argument, Dialogue and Decision: Toulouse 2002 Whistler 2004 Lake District 2006 Sidney 2008 Toronto 2010
• International Workshops on Dialogue, Explanation and Argumentation in Human-Agent Interaction (DEXAHAI) Southampton 2018, Santiago de Compostella 2020.
• Workshop on The wisdom and madness of crowds: argumentation, information exchange and social interaction.
  Amsterdam (The Netherlands), 30 March - 1 April 2020 (online because of coronavirus crisis.)
• Conference on Bridging the gap between formal argumentation and actual human reasoning.
  Bochum (Germany), 4-5 October, 2018.
• Second Chinese Conference on Logic and Argumentation (CLAR 2018).
  Hangzhou (China), 16-17 June 2018.
• 2nd Workshop on Argument Strength.
  Toulouse (France), 10-12 April 2018.
• 1st Workshop on Argument Strength .
  Bochum (Germany), 1-2 December, 2016.
• IJCAI-2016 Workshop on Argumentation in Logic Programming and Non-Monotonic Reasoning (ArgLPNMR 2016).
  New York (USA), July 9-11, 2016.
• 1st International Workshop on Argumentation and Logic Programming (ArgLP 2015),
  Cork (Ireland) 31 August 2015.
• 2nd Workshop on Argumentation Mining.
  Denver (USA), 4 June, 2015.
• 12th ArgDiap Conference "From Real Data to Argument Mining".
  Warsaw (Poland) 23-24 May, 2014.
• Workshop on Argumentation, Rationality and Decicison
  London (UK) 18-19 September, 2014.
• Summer School on Argumentation: Computational and Linguistic Perspectives (SSA 2014).
  Pitlochry (Scotland), September 4 - 8, 2014.
• First Workshop on Argumentation Mining. An ACL 2014 Workshop
  Baltimore (USA), 26 June, 2014.
• 12th SWAM 2014: Workshop on Argument Mining: Perspectives from Information Extraction, Information Retrieval and Computational Linguistics.
  Dundee (Scotland) 9-10 July, 2014.
• 14th International Workshop on Computational Logic in Multi-Agent Systems (CLIMA XIV), with a special session on Argumentation Technologies.
  La Coruna (Spain), September 16-17, 2013.
• Workshop on Formal Methods in Argument Reconstruction,
  Konstanz (Germany), September 20-21, 2012.
• Workshop on Dynamics Of Argumentation, Rules, and Conditionals,
  Luxemburg (Luxemburg), April 2-3, 2012.
• AAAI Fall 2009 Symposium on The Uses of Computational Argumentation.
  Washington D.C. (USA), 5-7 November 2009.
• International Symposium on Games, Argumentation and Logic Programming .Luxembourg (Luxembourg), 23-24 April 2009.
• Dagstuhl Perspectives workshop on Theory and Practice of Argumentation Systems. Dagstuhl (Germany), January 20-23, 2008.
• Symposium on Argument and Computation.
  Pitlochry (Scotland), June 26 - July 3, 2000.
• Maastricht Argument Day. An international workshop on argument
  Maastricht (The Netherlands), 4 December 1996.

• Chris Reed & Tim Norman (eds.), Argumentation Machines. New Frontiers in Argument and Computation
• Iyad Rahwan & Guillermo Simari (eds.), Argumentation in Artificial Intelligence
• Argument and Computation.

• The sources of the original ASPIC inference engine implementation from the European ASPIC project (2004-2007).
• Wietske Visser's implementation of combined epistemic-practical argumentation with accrual.
• Eric Kok's testbed for simulating arguing agents.
• The first version of Arg-Tech's ASPIC+ demonstrator, developed by Mark Snaith.
• OVA-gen, a tool for computing with Dung graphs developed at Arg-Tech.
• Tom Gordon's Carneades system.
• Araucaria, an argument analysis tool (Chris Reed & Glenn Rowe)
• DeLP interpreter (Defeasible Logic Programming).
• Compendium
• Rationale (The commercial successor of Tim van Gelder's Reason!Able)
• Argunet
• Automated Argument Assistance (Bart Verheij)

Leila Amgoud Pietro Baroni Trevor Bench-Capon Philippe Besnard Floris Bex Liz Black Simon Buckingham Shum Gerd Brewka Martin Caminada Frederico Cerutti Phan Minh Dung Paul Dunne Tim van Gelder Tom Gordon John Horty Tony Hunter Tony Kakas Robert Kowalski Ron Loui Peter McBurney Sanjay Modgil Nir Oren Simon Parsons John Pollock Iyad Rahwan Chris Reed Guillermo Simari Matthias Thimm Francesca Toni Paolo Torroni Leon van der Torre Bart Verheij Gerard Vreeswijk Stefan Woltran