RAIL

Argumentation, Rationality and Decision

Imperial College London, 18th-19th September 2014

Argumentation, initially studied in philosophy and law, has in recent years been the subject of extensive formal research in artificial intelligence and computer science. It provides representations and algorithms for reasoning with incomplete and possibly inconsistent information. Formalisms can be used to model decision-making by individual agents performing critical thinking or by multiple entities dialectically engaged to reach mutually acceptable decisions. However, so far there has been little engagement with the rich mathematical theories of decision, studied as part of microeconomic theory.

In turn, formal rational choice theory has paid little attention to the structure and content of arguments brought to bear on decisions. The outcomes of choices are typically assigned values treated as embodying a cardinal or ordinal preference relation, with decision rules identifying good choices according to various decision rules and under differing conditions of circumstantial knowledge (certainty, strict uncertainty, risk). However, when people make decisions, whether that process has been rational or not depends not only on the optimality of outcome, but also on the argumentative structure implicit in the person’s deliberation. The structure of argument is important, and arguments for and against choices are weighed against each other depending on how firm the reasons are from which the argument is formed.

This workshop will bring together philosophers, economists, computer scientists and psychologists working on the sciences of decision, rationality and argumentation. It will give researchers the opportunity to present their work in an informal setting, with the hope that the hitherto separate fields of argumentation and decision theory can learn from each other.

The workshop is being held in the Department of Computing, Imperial College London.

Invited Speakers

• Richard Bradley, LSE
• Itzhak Gilboa, Yale and HEC, Paris
• Hugo Mercier, Université de Neuchâtel
• Martin Peterson, Eindhoven University of Technology
• Francesca Toni, Imperial College London

Participation

The workshop is open to researchers and Ph.D. students in related fields. There is no fee for participation, but there are limited places available.

If you wish to give a presentation, please submit a two-page extended abstract via the workshop’s EasyChair page. The submission deadline is Tuesday, 15th July 2014.

If you wish to attend without presenting, please submit a one-page summary of your relevant research interests and themes of your previous work via the workshop’s EasyChair page. The submission deadline is Tuesday, 15th July 2014.

The format for both types of submissions is the Springer LNCS style.

We have limited travel funds available to cover travel and accommodation. If you wish to be considered for these, please complete the form here, indicating the amount for which you are applying, the breakdown of costs, and any reasons we should take into consideration, and email it to Robert Craven by 15th July 2014.

Important Dates

• Submission deadline: 15th July, 2014
• Funding request deadline: 15th July, 2014
• Notification of attendance and funding: 25th July, 2014
• Workshop: 18th-19th September, 2014

Sponsorship

The workshop is being sponsored by the EPSRC project TRaDAr (Transparent Rational Decisions by Argumentation) and SINTELNET, the European Network for Social Intelligence.