Formal Argumentation for Artificial Intelligence

Important notice: Enrollment is now possible. Until 11 October, enrollment was not possible due to a technical problem. If you wish to participate in this course, please enroll here on OPAL.

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 planned schedule is as follows:

• Lecture: Wednesdays, 4th double period (13:00–14:30)
• Exercise class: Fridays, 6th double period (16:40–18:10)

Due to a request from a student that is currently not able to enter Germany, the lectures and exercises will take place online at least until the end of November. I will send a link to a Zoom room to every student who enrolls to the course here on OPAL.