Argumentation in the Semantic Web

In this article, we define ArgSciFF, a prototype operational argumentation framework to support dialogic argument exchange between Semantic Web services. ArgSciFF is based on the Sciff abductive-logic programming (ALP) framework. (Sciff is an abbreviation for "IFF with constraints for agent societies," referring to the "if and only if\´ proof procedure developed by Tze Ho Fung and Robert Kowal-ski.) In ArgSciFF, an intelligent agent can interact with a Web service and reason from the interaction result. The reasoning semantics is an argumentation semantics that views the interaction as a dialogue. The dialogue lets two parties exchange arguments and attack, challenge, and justify them on the basis of their knowledge. This format has the potential to overcome a well-known barrier to human users\´ adoption of IT solutions because it permits interaction that includes justified answers that can be reasoned about and rebutted.