Introduction to Formal Argumentation

Formal argumentation is a research area within Artificial Intelligence that studies argumentation using formal methods from logic and graph theory. It is an active field of research with close ties to non-monotonic logic, i.e. to the study of logical formalisms that can capture the feature of human reasoning that we sometimes retract a previously made conclusion when we receive new information. This is because a new piece of information can allow us to construct a counter-argument to a previously accepted argument. In formal argumentation one studies various formalisms that capture this feature of human reasoning and argumentation in a precise and computationally realizable way.

Formal argumentation consists of two main parts: In abstract argumentation one studies the acceptability of arguments by abstracting away from their internal structure to focus on the relation of attacks between them, i.e. on the relation between a counterargument and the argument that it counters. In structured argumentation one models also the internal structure of arguments through a formal language in which arguments and counterarguments can be constructed.

This course has a 2/2/0 structure, i.e. we will have a double period lecture and a double period exercise class each week.The lecture takes place on Wednesday (starting on 28 October) from 13:00 to 14:30. The exercise class takes place on Fridays (starting on 30 October) from 16:40 to 18:10. In the first week we meet via Zoom. Depending on the number of participants, a decision will then be made about whether to continue the course online or on-site.

If you want to participate this course, please contact Marcos Cramer (marcos (dot) cramer (at) tu-dresden (dot) de) by 28 October, 11:00 a.m.