Argumentation in Multi-Agent Systems

This volume is based on the Second Workshop on Argumentation in Multiagent Systems (Argmas). The workshop was held in conjunction with the 4th Int- national Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (aamas), at the University of Utrecht in Utrecht, The Netherlands, in July 2005. The workshop itself took place on July 26. We are happy to report that the second workshop was just as popular and successfulasitspredecessor,heldtheprevioussummerinNewYork.Wereceived 17 submissions, eachof which wasreviewed by at least three experts in the ?eld, and ten of these papers were accepted for presentation at the workshop. Once again the workshop was graced by an invited lecture, this time by Frans van Eemeren of the University of Amsterdam, who talked on the subject of prag- dialectics. The workshop attracted 31 participants, ensuring many questions for the speakers, and a healthy exchange of views during the discussion periods. Following the practice established with the post-proceedings of the ?rst Argmasworkshop,weinvitedthepresentersofalltheacceptedpaperstoprepare revised versions of their papers for this volume. In addition we approached - thors of papers on directly related topics that had been presented in theaamas conference, and this gaveus an additionalseven papers. We further solicited one additional paper (details below) and were lucky enough that Prof. van Eemeren consented to send us a paper that covered the material of his invited talk.

From the reviews:

"Today, agents are a well-known technology, especially for Web applications and services. This volume contains the papers presented at the Second International Workshop on Argumentation in Multiagent Systems. Overall, the description above is a very simple view of what is covered in this volume. This book is for specialists with knowledge in the area." (K. Waldhör, ACM Computing Reviews, Vol. 49 (4), April, 2008)

Zusammenfassung

From the reviews:

"Today, agents are a well-known technology, especially for Web applications and services. ... This volume contains the papers presented at the Second International Workshop on Argumentation in Multiagent Systems. Overall, the description above is a very simple view of what is covered in this volume. ... This book is for specialists with knowledge in the area." (K. Waldhör, ACM Computing Reviews, Vol. 49 (4), April, 2008)

Inhalt
Invited Lecture.- The Case of Pragma-Dialectics.- Foundations.- A Logic of Abstract Argumentation.- On the Meta-logic of Arguments.- Nested Argumentation and Its Application to Decision Making over Actions.- Testing Formal Dialectic.- Negotiation.- Formal Handling of Threats and Rewards in a Negotiation Dialogue.- Argument-Based Negotiation in a Social Context.- Practical Strategic Reasoning and Adaptation in Rational Argument-Based Negotiation.- A Protocol for Arguing About Rejections in Negotiation.- Protocols.- New Types of Inter-agent Dialogues.- Argumentation Based Modelling of Embedded Agent Dialogues.- Liberalizing Protocols for Argumentation in Multi-agent Systems.- Protocol Synthesis with Dialogue Structure Theory.- Deliberation and Coalition Formation.- An Argumentation-Based Model for Reasoning About Coalition Structures.- Argumentation-Based Multi-agent Dialogues for Deliberation.- Consensus Formation.- Presentation of Arguments and Counterarguments for Tentative Scientific Knowledge.- Towards a Formal Framework for the Search of a Consensus Between Autonomous Agents.- Argumentation-Supported Information Distribution in a Multiagent System for Knowledge Management.- How Agents Alter Their Beliefs After an Argumentation-Based Dialogue.