Carneades Argumentation System

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

Carneades 4.3

Version 4.3 of Carneades was released today. New in 4.3 are: Argument validation, by matching arguments to schemes Argumentation scheme validation, checking for syntatic and semantic errors in a theory (knowledge-base) Native implementation of a Constraint Handling Rules (CHR) inference engine, in Go, for constructing arguments. Removes the dependency on Prolog. The Go implementation of CHR was designed and implemented by Horst Friedrich. It has a separate GitHub project, GoCHR.

Carneades 4.2

Version 4.2 of Carneades was released today. New in 4.2 are: User-definable argument evaluation functions, for deriving relative argument weights from properties of the arguments (4.1 included a few builtin argument evaluation functions.) A language, based on YAML, for representing argumentation schemes. Automatic argument construction from argumentation schemes and assumptions via an inference engine implemented using Constraint Handling Rules. As before, you can try Carneades 4.2 online using the Carneades server without having to build or install the system yourself.

ICCMA 2015 Results

The results of the First International Competition on Computational Models of Argument (ICCMA) are now available. And the winners are: CoQuiAAS ArgSemSAT LabSATSolver Congratulations! Our own entry, Carneades 4.0, placed 2nd in all four of the grounded semantics “tracks”, and 7th overall, in a field of 18 solvers. As expected, in the tracks for the intractable tasks (no pun indented), we didn’t stand a chance against the systems using SAT solvers.

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).

Carneades 3.7

Carneades 3.7 is now available for downloading. This version of Carneades is a web application, with a three-tiered architecture. The web client of this version has been completing rewritten to make use of modern JavaScript libraries for interactive web applications. The user interface is designed to be usable on all devices, including smart phones and tablets, as well as desktop computers. See the Carneades 3.7 User Manual for futher information about downloading, installing and using the system.

New Carneades Website

Welcome to the new website for the Carneades argumentation system. The website is now generated using the Hugo Website Engine and hosted on GitHub. Hugo provides a nice, simple way to maintain a blog. We will use this feature to make announcements. The blog is also available in the Atom syndication format here.