Computational Models of Argument

Argumentation has traditionally been studied across a number of fields, notably philosophy, cognitive science, linguistics and jurisprudence. The study of computational models of argumentation is a more recent endeavor, bringing together researchers from traditional fields and computer science and engineering within a rich, interdisciplinary matrix. Computational models of argumentation have been identified and used since the 1980s, and more recently an important role for argumentation in leading to principled decisions has emerged in several settings. This book presents the proceedings of COMMA 2022 the 9th International Conference on Computational Models of Argument, held in Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom, during 14 - 16 September 2022. The book contains 27 regular papers and 16 demo papers from a total of 75 submissions, as well as 3 invited talks from Prof Paul Dunne (University of Liverpool), Prof Iryna Gurevych (TU Darmstadt), and Prof Antonis Kakas (University of Cyprus), which reflect the diverse nature of the field. Papers are a mix of theoretical and practical contributions; theoretical contributions include new formal models, the study of formal or computational properties of models, design for implemented systems and experimental research; practical papers include applications to law, machine learning and explainability. Abstract and structured accounts of argumentation are covered, as are relations between different accounts. Many papers focus on the evaluation of arguments or their conclusions given a body of arguments, with a continuation of a recent trend to study gradual or probabilistic notions of evaluation. The book offers an overview of recent and current research and will be of interest to all those working with computational models of argumentation.