Formal models of meta-argumentation and objectification of discussions

Abstract

In this article, I propose a solution to the problem of objectification of discussions, originally proposed by I. Berestov. An “objectification of discussion” is a way of usage of the entire argumentation framework (which consists of a set of arguments and an attack relation defined on this set) as a molecular argument in favour or against a certain claim. The problem is that traditional way of modelling argumentation frames proposed by P. Dung has some constrains which do not allow us to include arguments that attack one another in molecular arguments. Molecular arguments can only include atoms, between which there is no attack relation, that does not allow us to collect the entire discussion into a single molecular argument. We show how this problem can be solved within D. Gabbay’s approach to modeling meta-argumentation. In this approach any attack can be “objectified” by introducing additional vertices into the graph structure.