Conference “Bridging the Gap between Formal Argumentation and Actual Human Reasoning”

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When
4.-5. October 2018
(Prolonged) Deadline Abstracts
7. August 2018 (see below)
Where
Institute for Philosophy II, Ruhr-University Bochum

Confirmed Speakers:

Some Photos

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The Workshop Theme

Non-monotonic reasoning has received a lot of attention in the fields of artificial intelligence and philosophical logic. One of the most promising paradigms is formal argumentation. One central goal of this research program is to give a (normative) account of actual human reasoning. However, there is still a substantial gap between these formal models and many real-life instances of the formalized phenomena. In this workshop we intend to approach this gap from three different angles:

  1. Linguistic angle. Can formal argumentation benefit from insights in linguistics, such as:
    • making use of formal languages closer to natural language (controlled natural language, discourse representation theory, etc.)
    • providing argumentation theory with insights from semantics and pragmatics of natural language (e.g. from frame semantics, presupposition theory, conversational implicatures etc.)
    • etc.
  2. Inferential angle. How can we integrate the modelling of more natural inference patterns such as the following in formal argumentation:
    • argumentation schemes
    • suppositional/hypothetical reasoning
    • case-based reasoning and reasoning by analogy
    • reasoning with quantifiers
    • etc.
  3. Cognitive angle.
    • What are insights from cognitive science into defeasible reasoning that are relevant for formal argumentation?
    • Can tools from formal argumentation be useful for analytical and interpretative purposes in cognitive science?
    • Are models in formal argumentation in accordance with current insights in cognitive science?

Program

DAY 1: THU 4/10      
Opening 09:15-09:30    
Keynote 1 09:30-10:30   Chair: Christian
    Argument Technology: The first 100,000 users Reed
Coffee break 10:30-11:00    
Session A 11:00-12:45   Chair: Jesse
A.1   Human-Aware Computational Argumentation: A workshop report Bex, Hadoux, Hornikx, Schulz
A.2   Taxonomising Argument Types Bench-Capon, Atkinson
A.3   On a Flexible Representation for Defeasible Reasoning Variants Hecham, Bisquert, Croitoru
Lunch break 12:45-14:30    
Keynote 2 14:30-15:30   Chair: Pere
    Talking about EMIL: Extracting Meaning from Inconsistent Language Wyner
Coffee break 15:30-16:00    
Session B 16:00-17:10   Chair: Marcos
B.1   On Formal Argumentation and Scientific Enquiry Cerutti (invited)
B.2   The Theory of Scientific Reasoning and Argumentation in Practice Schulz, Kiesewetter, Sailer, Bauer, Fischer, Fischer, Gurevich
Break 17:10-17:30    
Keynote 3 17:30-18:30   Chair: AnneMarie
    Structured Argumentation Frameworks and Reasoning with Maximal Consistency Arieli
Worhshop dinner 19:30-21:30 Hans im Glück  
DAY 2: FRI 5/10      
Keynote 4 09:30-10:30   Chair: Jesse
    Artificial Argumentation for Humans Villata
Coffee break 10:30-11:00    
Session C 11:00-12:45   Chair: Ofer
C.1   Argumentation-based support for human sensemaking of conflicting information Toniolo (invited)
C.2   Structured Arguments Unchained Bench-Capon, Atkinson
C.3   Cognitive Argumentation and the Suppression Task Dietz Saldanha, Kakas
Lunch break 12:45-14:30    
Keynote 5 14:30-15:30   Chair: Marcos
    Reconciling Formal and Informal Reasoning Kakas
Coffee break 15:30-16:00    
Session D 16:00-17:10   Chair: Pere
D.1   Inference Trees over a Conditional Language as Proxies for Real-world Arguments Weydert
D.2   An opinion diffusion model with deliberation: a tool for democracy and governance analysis Butler, Rouchier, Pigozzi
Closing 17:10-17:15    

Book of Abstracts

The book of abstracts can be found here.

Call for Abstracts

Registration

There will be no admission fee. For organization purposes we kindly ask you to register here.

Please register before September 1st.

Organizing Committee

  • Ofer Arieli (Tel Aviv)
  • AnneMarie Borg (RUB)
  • Marcos Cramer (Dresden)
  • Jesse Heyninck (RUB)
  • Pere Pardo Ventura (RUB)
  • Christian Straßer (RUB)

The conference is organized by the Research Group for Non-monotonic Logic and Formal Argumentation at the Institute for Philosophy II, Ruhr-University Bochum. http://homepage.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/defeasible-reasoning/

The conference is supported by the Sofja Kovalevskaja award of the Alexander von Humboldt-Foundation (funded by the German Ministry for Education and Research) and by the Ruhr University Research School PLUS (funded by Germany’s Excellence Initiative [DFG GSC 98/3]).

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Venue and how to get there

Getting from Bochum Hauptbahnhof to the Ruhr-University Bochum

From Bochum Hauptbahnhof (central station) take the U35 towards Bochum Querenburg (Hustadt) and get out at stop “Ruhr Universität”. (Ticket needed: Preisstufe A, €2,70). On weekdays the subway U35 leaves every 5 minutes and reaches the university within 9 minutes.

Getting from the U-Bahn stop “Ruhr Universität” to the Veranstaltungszentrum (Saal 4)

The venue of the conference is the Veranstaltungszentrum (VZ), located on the university campus, underneath the Mensa. The conference will be held in room ’Saal 4’. A map of the campus can be found here: campus map.

From the train station of the U35 (“Ruhr-Universität”) go up the pedestrian bridge, turn right from the exit and walk towards the university. Your route takes you directly to the building of the university library. Keep walking till you pass the University library on your left and then go down the stairs. Continue walking straight until you go down more stairs and pass the Auditorium building on your left. Continue walking until you reach the ’Mensa’ building, again walking down some stairs, and you will finally reach an elevator that you can take (you can also walk down more stairs instead). You will go to ’Ebene 04 Convention Center’ by pressing the ’04’ button in the elevator. The room Saal 4 is on the left once you enter the convention center. (Around 7 min. walk in total.)

Travel recommendations for long-distance and air travellers

Bochum Hauptbahnhof (central station) is served by ICE, IC, EC, regional and suburban trains at a high frequency. From there, you can reach the University easily by taking underground line U35 straight to the stop Ruhr-Universität. Four airports - Dortmund, Münster/Osnabrück, Cologne/Bonn and Düsseldorf - are within a reasonable distance of the Ruhr-Universität. Düsseldorf Airport, however, is not only the largest, but also the most easily accessed: there are direct connections between the airport and Bochum’s main train station up to eight times per hour, and the journey only takes a good half an hour.

Getting from Düsseldorf Airport to Bochum Hauptbahnhof

Upon arriving at the airport follow the signs to the DB (Deutsche Bahn) train station. Buy your train ticket to Bochum (Ticket needed: Preisstufe D, €15,00) at the airport before boarding the monorail which takes you to the train station. There are trains travelling directly to Bochum Hauptbahnhof frequently and the trip takes about 35 to 45 minutes depending on which train you take. The ticket Preisstufe D is a ticket provided by the public transportation system VRR and it is only valid in regional trains and S-Bahn. If you take an ICE, IC or EC you need a more expensive ticket for long-distant trains.

Getting from Dortmund Airport to Bochum Hauptbahnhof

Take the shuttle bus from the Airport Terminal to Holzwickede train station. From Holzwickede you take the train to Dortmund Hauptbahnhof (central station) and then change trains to Bochum Hauptbahnhof.

Accommodation

Since both the city centre and the conference venues are easy to reach from there, we advise you to take a hotel close to Bochum Hauptbahnhof.