We develop a method for analyzing argumentative discussions centered around the notions of ‘stock issues’, i.e., the field-dependednt standard issues addressed by the participants insuch discussions. The method yields an overview of the structure and content of complexargumentative discussions with multiple participants, including the activated stock issuesand the ‘depth’ of the argumentation advanced per each stock issue. We start from theassumption that any given discussion context requires a set of stock issues to be addressedby the participants through their argumentation, tied together by a decision rule regu-lating the weight of each stock issue on the matter at hand. The building blocks of ourmethod and the results of its application are illustrated through an example. We discussseveral extensions and problems, concluding with directions for further research
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