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Computational dialectic and rhetorical invention

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An Erratum to this article was published on 11 June 2010

Abstract

This paper has three dimensions, historical, theoretical and social. The historical dimension is to show how the Ciceronian system of dialectical argumentation served as a precursor to computational models of argumentation schemes such as Araucaria and Carneades. The theoretical dimension is to show concretely how these argumentation schemes reveal the interdependency of rhetoric and logic, and so the interdependency of the normative with the empirical. It does this by identifying points of disagreement in a dialectical format through using argumentation schemes and critical questions. The social dimension is to show how the Ciceronian dialectical viewpoint integrates with the use of computational tools that can be used to support the principle of reason-based deliberation and facilitate deliberative democracy.

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Notes

  1. To see how expert opinion testimony is used as a form of argumentation in law, see (Walton 1997) and (Verheij 2003).

  2. Statement of the Intelligent System Group for Computational Dialectics, accessed Nov. 30, 2009 at: http://www.cs.uu.nl/groups/IS/cd.html.

  3. See (Gordon 1995, xi) for the published version.

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Correspondence to Douglas Walton.

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An erratum to this article can be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00146-010-0283-5

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Walton, D. Computational dialectic and rhetorical invention. AI & Soc 26, 3–17 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-010-0279-1

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