Computational Models of Argument

Argumentation has evolved from its original study primarily by philosophers to emerge in the last ten years as an important sub-discipline of Artificial Intelligence. Among the significant contributions resulting from this have been approaches to modeling and analysis of defeasible reasoning, formal bases for negotiation and dialogue processes in multiagent systems, and the use of argumentation theory in AI applications whose nature is not best described through traditional logics, e.g. legal reasoning, evaluation of conflicting beliefs, etc. The process of interpreting and exploiting classical treatments of Argumentation Theory in effective computational terms has led to a rich interchange of ideas among researchers from disciplines such as Philosophy, Linguistics, AI and Economics. While work over recent years has done much to consolidate diverse contributions to the field, many new concerns have been identified and form the basis of current research. The papers in this volume, presented as part of the 1st International Conference on Computational Model of Arguments (COMMA) in September 2006, give a valuable overview of on-going research issues and concerns within this field.