Formal Argumentation for Artificial Intelligence

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 timing and location of the lectures and exercise classes is as follows:

• Exercise classes: Tuesdays, 14:50-16:20, room 2026 (APB)
• Lectures: Wednesdays, 13:00-14:30, room E.005 (APB).