Argumentation and Computing

Abstract

Argumentation is usually thought of as a domain within philosophy, or rhetoric. Yet, it has made inroads in the works of computer scientists, especially, yet not only, the logistics among them. Information Ethics and Security, in the title of this encyclopedia, respectively belong in ethics (in general) and in the forensic sciences (security is both preventative and about discovering traces of perpetrators). Deontic logic?that is, logic for representing obligations and permissions (Åqvist, 2002; Abrahams & Bacon, 2002) being used, for example in databases or in security?has been an early (1970s) and conspicuous stream within “AI & Law,” a domain in which models of argumentation have featured prominently since the 1990s (e.g., Ashley, 1990; Prakken & Sartor, 1996).