Invited Talks

Mind the Gap: Abstract vs. Applied Argumentation

Pietro Baroni, Università degli Studi di Brescia, Italy

Abstract: Using examples taken from the literature, the talk discusses gaps and links between formal notions and models in abstract argumentation and actual applications of argumentation technologies, with a twofold perspective. On one hand, it analyses the risks inherent in "direct jumps" from concrete examples to completely abstract formalisms. On the other hand, it examines the practical counterparts and potential utility of some abstract notions in actual application contexts.

Slides: The slides from the talk are available here.

Towards Reactive Multi-Context Systems

Gerhard Brewka, University of Leipzig, Germany

Abstract: Among the challenges faced by the area of knowledge representation (KR) are the following ones: firstly, knowledge represented in different knowledge representation languages needs to be integrated, and secondly, certain applications have specific needs not typically fulfilled by standard KR systems. What we have in mind here are applications where reasoners, rather than being called by the user in order to answer some specific query, run online and have to deal with a continuous stream of information. In this paper we argue that multi-context systems (MCS) are adequate tools for both challenges. The original MCS approach was introduced to handle the integration problem in a principled way. A later extension to so-called managed MCS appears to provide relevant functionality for the second challenge. In this paper we review both MCS and managed MCS and discuss how the latter approach needs to be further developed for online applications.

Intuition Pumps for Deontic Logic

Sven Ove Hansson, Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden

Abstract: In deontic logic as well as several other areas of logic, intuitions are applied not only to the representation of the actual subject-matter but also to various constructions such as possible worlds, maximal subsets not applying a certain sentence, etc. To what extent can intuitions related to such constructions help us determine the validity of logical principles for the actual subject-matter? In this talk we investigate the efficiency of different types of intuition pumps used in deontic logic and related fields.

Combing Ontologies in Settings with Multiple Agents

George Vouros, University of Piraeus, Greece

Abstract: Combining knowledge and beliefs of autonomous peers in distributed settings, is a major challenge. In this talk we consider agents that combine their ontologies and reason jointly with their coupled knowledge using the E-SHIQ representation framework. We motivate the need for a representation framework that allows agents to combine their knowledge in different ways, maintaining the subjectivity of their own knowledge and beliefs, and to reason collaboratively, constructing a tableau that is distributed among them. The talk presents the E-SHIQ representation framework and the tableau reasoning algorithm. It presents the implications to the modularization of ontologies for efficient reasoning, implications to coordinating agents' subjective beliefs, as well as challenges for combining ontologies in open and dynamic multi-agent systems.