Algorithms for generating arguments and counterarguments in propositional logic

  • Authors:
  • Vasiliki Efstathiou;Anthony Hunter

  • Affiliations:
  • Department of Computer Science, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, UK;Department of Computer Science, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, UK

  • Venue:
  • International Journal of Approximate Reasoning
  • Year:
  • 2011

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Abstract

A common assumption for logic-based argumentation is that an argument is a pair where @F is minimal subset of the knowledgebase such that @F is consistent and @F entails the claim @a. Different logics provide different definitions for consistency and entailment and hence give us different options for formalising arguments and counterarguments. The expressivity of classical propositional logic allows for complicated knowledge to be represented but its computational cost is an issue. In previous work we have proposed addressing this problem using connection graphs and resolution in order to generate arguments for claims that are literals. Here we propose a development of this work to generate arguments for claims that are disjunctive clauses of more than one disjunct, and also to generate counteraguments in the form of canonical undercuts (i.e. arguments that with a claim that is the negation of the conjunction of the support of the argument being undercut).