Argumentation and Reasoned Action

The European Conference on Argumentation (ECA) is a new pan-European initiative aiming to consolidate and advance various streaks of research into argumentation and reasoning: from philosophical, linguistic, discourse analytic, cognitive, to computational approaches. The chief goal of the initiative is to organize on a regular basis a major conference on argumentation. The first of these conferences will be hosted in Lisbon by the ArgLab, Institute of Philosophy (IFILNOVA), Universidade Nova de Lisboa. While based in Europe, ECA involves and further encourages participation from argumentation scholars all over the world.

CONFIRMED KEYNOTE SPEAKERS for ECA Lisbon 2015:
JOHN R. SEARLE
Philosophy, University of California, Berkeley, USA
ISABELA FAIRCLOUGH & NORMAN FAIRCLOUGH
Discourse Analysis, University of Central Lancashire & University of Lancaster, UK
SIMON PARSONS
Computer Science, University of Liverpool, UK

SPECIAL THEME
Argumentation and Reasoned Action

The primary idea behind this first edition of the conference is that argumentation and reasoning are the main vehicles for our decisions and actions. They accompany, indeed constitute, a variety of significant social practices: from individual practical reasoning, small group decisions, deliberations of official bodies in various institutional contexts, to large-scale political and social deliberations. Argumentation is understood here as a mode of action – and not just any action, but a reasoned action, comprised of consideration of reasons (whether they are good or bad). Traditionally, argumentation has been assigned many distinct functions: epistemic, moral, conversational, etc. The aim of the conference is to explore how these functions are interrelated with the practical need for deciding on a course of action. Simply put, our chief concern is with the role argumentation and reasoning play when the question of “what to do?” is addressed.

All kinds of approaches to argumentation and reasoning are welcome: the (informal) logical, (pragma-)dialectical, rhetorical, but also contributions that examine argumentation from the perspective of practical reasoning in moral philosophy and philosophy of action; deliberation in political theory; public policy analysis; legal decisions in philosophy of law; cognitive study of reasoning and decisions; models of decision-making in computer science; organisational, small-group, and interpersonal communication; or discourse analytic methods examining the linguistic tokens of argumentative practices.

The conference will be focused on, but not limited to, the following topics:

• Practical reasoning and argumentation
• Fallacious arguments and bad decisions
• Argumentation and decision-making in institutional (education, health, business) and interpersonal contexts
• Argumentation and deliberation in the public sphere
• Public policy debates and public controversies
• Argumentation in digital media
• Visual arguments as modes of action
• Models of argumentative dialogues
• Argumentation in multi-agent systems
• Legal arguments and legal decisions
• Cognitive mechanisms behind argumentative practices

PROGRAMME COMMITTEE:
Sally Jackson (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA) (Chair)
Dima Mohammed (Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal) (Secretary)
Lilian Bermejo-Luque (University of Granada, Spain)
Steve Oswald (University of Fribourg, Switzerland)
 
ORGANISING COMMITTEE:
Argumentation Lab, Institute of Philosophy, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal
Marcin Lewiński (Chair)
Giovanni Damele
Fabrizio Macagno
Dima Mohammed
João Sàágua

ECA STEERING COMMITTEE:
Fabio Paglieri (ISTC-CNR, Rome, Italy) (Chair)
Jan Albert van Laar (University of Groningen, The Netherlands) (D. Chair)
Lilian Bermejo Luque (University of Granada, Spain)
Katarzyna Budzyńska (Polish Academy of Sciences, Poland)
Marcin Koszowy (University of Białystok, Poland)
Marcin Lewiński (Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal)
Dima Mohammed (Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal)
Steve Oswald (University of Fribourg, Switzerland)
Chris Reed (University of Dundee, Scotland, UK)
Juho Ritola (University of Turku, Finland)
Sara Rubinelli (University of Lucerne, Switzerland)
Frank Zenker (University of Lund, Sweden)

SCIENTIFIC PANEL:
Mark Aakhus (Rutgers University, USA)
Michał Araszkiewicz (Jagiellonian University, Poland)
Gregor Betz (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany)
Anthony Blair (University of Windsor, Canada)
Alessandra von Burg (Wake Forest University, USA)
Christian Dahlmann (University of Lund, Sweden)
Emmanuelle Danblon (Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium)
Kamila Dębowska-Kozłowska (Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland)
Marianne Doury (CNRS, Paris, France)
Frans H. van Eemeren (University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands)
Joana Garmendia (University of the Basque Country, Spain)
David Godden (Old Dominion University, USA)
Jean Goodwin (Iowa State University, USA)
Thomas Gordon (Fraunhofer FOKUS, Germany)
Floriana Grasso (University of Liverpool, UK)
Sara Greco Morasso (University of Lugano, Switzerland)
Ulrike Hahn (Birkbeck, University of London, UK)
Dale Hample (University of Maryland, USA)
Hans V. Hansen (University of Windsor, Canada)
Christopher Hart (University of Lancaster, UK)
Thierry Herman (University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland)
Catherine Hundleby (University of Windsor, Canada)
Constanza Ihnen (University of Chile, Chile)
Henrike Jansen (University of Leiden, The Netherlands)
Ralph Johnson (University of Windsor, Canada)
Gabrijela Kisicek (University of Zagreb, Croatia)
Jens Kjeldsen (University of Bergen, Norway)
Christian Kock (University of Copenhagen, Denmark)
Manfred Kraus (University of Tübingen, Germany)
Markus Lammenranta (University of Helsinki, Finland)
Hugo Mercier (University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland)
Paula Olmos (UNED, Madrid, Spain)
Catherine Palczewski (University of Northern Iowa, USA)
Rudi Palmieri (University of Lugano, Switzerland)
Steve Patterson (Marygrove College, Detroit, USA)
Niki Pfeifer (Ludwig Maximilians University Munich, Germany)
Damien Smith Pfister (University of Nebraska-Lincoln, USA)
Henry Prakken (University of Utrecht, The Netherlands)
Iyad Rahwan (British University in Dubai, United Arab Emirates)
Henrique Ribeiro (University of Coimbra, Portugal)
Andrea Rocci (University of Lugano, Switzerland)
Cristián Santibáñez Yáñez (Diego Portales University, Chile)
Harvey Siegel (University of Miami, USA)
Francisca Snoeck Henkemans (University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands)
Christopher Tindale (University of Windsor, Canada)
Sarah L. Uckelman (University of Heidelberg, Germany)
Bart Verheij (University of Groningen, The Netherlands)
Laura Vincze (Roma Tre University, Italy)
Jean Wagemans (University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands)
Lena Wahlberg (University of Lund, Sweden)
Harry Weger (University of Central Florida, USA)
David Cratis Williams (Florida Atlantic University, USA)
Maciej Witek (University of Szczecin, Poland)
Yun (Robert) Xie (Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China)