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Reading order

The field spans 30 years of papers, many of them technically dense. Here's one path through them that we've found useful.

1-hour overview​

If you only read one paper:

Full curriculum​

Read in order:

  1. Dung (1995) — On the acceptability of arguments… — the foundational paper. Focus on §2–§4; skim §5 onward.
  2. Modgil & Prakken (2014) — ASPIC+ tutorial. Bridges the gap from abstract to structured. Read end-to-end.
  3. Walton, Reed, Macagno (2008) — Argumentation Schemes. Read Chapter 1 + Chapter 9 (Expert Opinion); skim the catalogue for a taste.
  4. Cayrol & Lagasquie-Schiex (2005) — On the acceptability of arguments in bipolar frameworks. Short (~15 pages).
  5. Dunne, Hunter, McBurney, Parsons, Wooldridge (2011) — Weighted argument systems. §1–§3 for definitions; skim complexity results unless you care.
  6. Bench-Capon (2003) — Persuasion in practical argument. Hal & Carla + values.
  7. Kaci & van der Torre (2008) — Preference-based argumentation: Arguments supporting multiple values. The multi-value extension to Bench-Capon. Read §2 (defeat rule) carefully — it's the spec our argumentation-values crate implements.
  8. Dunne & Bench-Capon (2004) — Complexity in VAF. Read §3 for the NP/co-NP results that motivate the ENUMERATION_LIMIT cap on subjectively_accepted / objectively_accepted queries.

Reading the docs themselves​

If you want to read the docs site in order rather than the underlying papers, here's a curated path:

Foundations (read these first):

  1. What is argumentation? — the front door; introduces the four big ideas.
  2. Acceptance semantics — credulous, skeptical, grounded, preferred, stable. With worked examples.
  3. Glossary — quick reference for terms used everywhere else.

Structure of arguments:

  1. Walton schemes — the ~60 named patterns the library ships.
  2. Attacks and supports — bipolar argumentation.
  3. ASPIC+ — structured arguments with rules and premises.

Tuning the resolution:

  1. Weighted attacks and β — attack strengths and the scene intensity dial.
  2. Value-based argumentation — character value priorities.

Wiring into a scene engine:

  1. The encounter bridge — proposer/responder model and how the dimensions compose.
  2. Open areas — what's still on the roadmap.

If you want to teach this to someone​

Use Walton (2006) — Fundamentals of Critical Argumentation — as the textbook. It has the short dialogues that make the formalism click for non-specialists. Then bring in the Modgil-Prakken tutorial for the formal mechanics.

If you want to build with this​

Read the Modgil-Prakken tutorial for ASPIC+ basics, then this library's guides. The encounter-argumentation bridge is the primary entry point for scene engines; the argumentation-values crate is the entry point for value-based reasoning. Pick one — the Choose your path page routes you by goal.