The theory of argumentation is a rich, interdisciplinary area of research involving philosophy, communications studies, linguistics, psychology, and logics. Its techniques have found a wide range of applications in both theoretical and practical branches of artificial intelligence and computer science. Multi-agent systems theory has picked up argumentation-inspired approaches and specifically argumentation-theoretic results from many different areas. Researchers in argumentation and multi-agent systems are currently enjoying a unique opportunity  to integrate the various understandings...

Argumentation is all around us. Letters to the Editor often make points of cons- tency, and Why is one of the most frequent questions in language, asking for r- sons behind behaviour. And argumentation is more than reasoning in the recesses of single minds, since it crucially involves interaction. It cements the coordinated social behaviour that has allowed us, in small bands of not particularly physically impressive primates, to dominate the planet, from the mammoth hunt all the way up to organized science. This volume puts argumentation on the map in the eld of Arti cial Intelligence. This...

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Principles and Practice of Multi-Agent Systems, PRIMA 2012, held in Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia, in September 2012. The conference was collocated with the 12th Pacific Rim International Conference on Artificial Intelligence, PRICAI. The 17 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 42 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on foundations, auctions and negotiation, coalition formation and teamwork, norms and institutions, and applications.