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:

• Baroni, Caminada, Giacomin (2011) — An introduction to argumentation semantics. A widely-cited survey of the field.

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.

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, then this library's guides. The encounter-argumentation bridge is the primary entry point.