Argumentation is often understood as a coherent set of Western theories, birthed in Athens and developing throughout the Roman period, the Middle Ages, the Enlightenment and Renaissance, and into the present century. Ideas have been nuanced, developed, and revised, but still the outline of argumentation theory has been recognizable for centuries, or so it has seemed to Western scholars. The 2019 Alta Conference on Argumentation (co-sponsored by the National Communication Association and the American Forensic Association) aimed to question the generality of these intellectual traditions. This resulting collection of essays deals with the possibility of having local theories of argument – local to a particular time, a particular kind of issue, a particular place, or a particular culture. Many of the papers argue for reconsidering basic ideas about arguing to represent the uniqueness of some moment or location of discourse. Other scholars are more comfortable with the Western traditions, and find them congenial to the analysis of arguments that originate in discernibly distinct circumstances. The papers represent different methodologies, cover the experiences of different nations at different times, examine varying sorts of argumentative events (speeches, court decisions, food choices, and sound), explore particular personal identities and the issues highlighted by them, and have different overall orientations to doing argumentation scholarship. Considered together, the essays do not generate one simple conclusion, but they stimulate reflection about the particularity or generality of the experience of arguing, and therefore the scope of our theories.

This edited volume presents selected works from the 21st Biennial Alta Argumentation Conference, sponsored by the National Communication Association and the American Forensics Association and held in 2019.

Efficient Computation of Argumentation Semantics addresses argumentation semantics and systems, introducing readers to cutting-edge decomposition methods that drive increasingly efficient logic computation in AI and intelligent systems. Such complex and distributed systems are increasingly used in the automation and transportation systems field, and particularly autonomous systems, as well as more generic intelligent computation research. The Series in Intelligent Systems publishes titles that cover state-of-the-art knowledge and the latest advances in research and development in intelligent systems. Its scope includes theoretical studies, design methods, and real-world implementations and applications. The series publishes titles in three core sub-topic areas: intelligent automation, intelligent transportation systems, and intelligent computing. - The first book to cover new methods for computing static, dynamic, and partial argumentation systems - Methods are applicable to development of systems and research areas in both AI and broader intelligent systems - Provides the AI and IS community with insight into the critical field of efficient computation, with a focus on intelligent automation, intelligent transportation systems, and intelligent computing

Explains why string theorists develop a strong belief in their theory despite the lack of empirical confirmation.

Whenever and wherever people communicate, they contend with powerful and sometimes hidden systems of symbols, meanings, premises, and rules pertaining to communicative conduct, i.e, speech codes. Adding to thirty years of cultural communication research, this ground-breaking volume presents readers with a new set of original, fieldwork-based case studies that examine speech codes in on- and offline settings around the world. Most importantly, Contending with Codes in a World of Difference culminates with a newly updated, expanded, and re-energized version of speech codes theory, well-suited to the contemporary study of communication and culture. Co-edited by Dr. Gerry Philipsen, the originator of speech codes theory, and Dr. Tabitha Hart, a fellow speech codes scholar, this edited collection is filled with examples, stories, and transcripts illustrating how to locate speech codes in a cultural arena; how to discern what speech codes reveal about local culture; what happens when multiple speech codes are in play; and how people resist, challenge, negotiate, or reconcile contending speech codes. Offering theoretical and methodological guidance for researchers and practical insight for students, practitioners, and laypeople, this book is essential for anyone interested in learning more about the art of contending with speech codes in a world of difference.

The Routledge Companion to Philosophy of Physics is a comprehensive and authoritative guide to the state of the art in the philosophy of physics. It comprisess 54 self-contained chapters written by leading philosophers of physics at both senior and junior levels, making it the most thorough and detailed volume of its type on the market – nearly every major perspective in the field is represented. The Companion’s 54 chapters are organized into 12 parts. The first seven parts cover all of the major physical theories investigated by philosophers of physics today, and the last five explore key themes that unite the study of these theories. I. Newtonian Mechanics II. Special Relativity III. General Relativity IV. Non-Relativistic Quantum Theory V. Quantum Field Theory VI. Quantum Gravity VII. Statistical Mechanics and Thermodynamics VIII. Explanation IX. Intertheoretic Relations X. Symmetries XI. Metaphysics XII. Cosmology The difficulty level of the chapters has been carefully pitched so as to offer both accessible summaries for those new to philosophy of physics and standard reference points for active researchers on the front lines. An introductory chapter by the editors maps out the field, and each part also begins with a short summary that places the individual chapters in context. The volume will be indispensable to any serious student or scholar of philosophy of physics.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 21st International Conference on Computer Aided Verification, CAV 2009, held in Grenoble, France, in June/July 2009. The 36 revised full papers presented together with 16 tool papers and 4 invited talks and 4 invited tutorials were carefully reviewed and selected from 135 regular paper and 34 tool paper submissions. The papers are dedicated to the advancement of the theory and practice of computer-aided formal analysis methods for hardware and software systems; their scope ranges from theoretical results to concrete applications, with an emphasis on practical verification tools and the underlying algorithms and techniques.