Disputation Theory Applied To Disjunctive Logic Programs

The abstract framework of Disputation Theory is applied to disjunctive logic programs with nonmonotonic negation. This induces a particular semantics, which is proved equivalent to a recently proposed one that has been obtained via Argumentation Theory. The distinguishing feature of general Disputation Theory is an abstract scheme for skeptical proof methods, where entailment is established by modeling a formal dispute between two arguers. By suitably instantiating this scheme we obtain a goal-oriented and local proof procedure for propositional disjunctive logic programs. Our proof method is capable of processing arbitrary programs, in particular those with so-called head cycles , which are known to be notoriously di cult. Finally, we present an alternative mapping of disjunctive logic programs to disputation theories where disjunction in clause heads is read inclusive. In so doing, the general framework again delivers for free a particular semantics and proof procedure.