Carneades tools for argument (re)construction, evaluation, mapping and interchange

Announcing Carneades 4

We have begun work on version 4 of Carneades. With this version we are pursuing the following goals:

  • Developing a new version of the Carneades Argument Evaluation Structures (CAES) formal model of structured argumentation, with better support for cyclic argument graphs, cumulative arguments, practical reasoning, case-based reasoning, and multi-criteria decision analysis. This new model both generalizes and simplifies the previous CAES model. It also improves its compatibility with other models of structured argument, such as the Argument Interchange Format (AIF), ASPIC+ and IBIS (Issue-Based Information Systems).

  • Refocusing our efforts on formalisms, data structures and algorithms for argumentation tasks (server-side), away from graphical user interfaces (client-side).

  • Making it easier for other developers to contribute to the project, by using more mainstream tools and languages.

  • Reducing the memory requirements of the system.

  • Making it easier to build, install and deploy the system.

Today we are pleased to announce the first release of this new version, Carneades 4.1. This release includes:

  • An evaluator for structured arguments, based on the new version of the Carneades Argument Evaluation Structures (CAES) formal model of structured argument. Argument graphs can be represented in AGXML, AIF, LKIF, CAF and YAML and exported to DOT, GraphML and YAML.

  • An implementation of a solver for Dung abstract argumentation frameworks, using grounded, complete, preferred and stable semantics. Argumentation Frameworks can be represented using the Trivial Graph Format. The computed extensions can be exported to GraphML and plain text. (DOT export is planned and will be available “soon”.)

We recommend using the free yEd GraphML program for editing and viewing the GraphML files.

The source code is available in the Carneades-4 Github project. The code is open source, using the MPL-2.0 license.