Tech Reports

ULCS-01-008

Strawmen and Eidolons: Using Argumentation to Reason across Scenarios

Peter McBurney and Simon Parsons

Abstract

We propose a dialectical argumentation formalism for qualitative reasoning under uncertainty in a context of alternative scenarios. Our formalism extends prior work representing knowledge uncertainty using dialectical argumentation in participant interaction spaces called Agoras. We define the notion of a scenario in this framework and consider its formal properties. In particular, we ask when can two scenarios be considered the same, and how might we aggregate conclusions from debates conducted under different scenarios. Our formalism is a qualitative, argumentation-based generalization of notions of probability of provability.

Keywords: Agoras, Argumentation, Dialogue Games, Scenarios.

For each technical report listed here, copyright and all intellectual property rights remain with the respective authors. Copyright is effective from the year of publication in each case. By downloading a file from this page, you agree to use it only for purposes of research and scholarship. Any other use of this material or storage of it in any medium or its sale or distribution in any form is expressly forbidden without prior written permission from the authors concerned.