A Logical argumentation model for computer-assisted reasoning

Abstract

The study of some real reasonings (observed in the Humanities) reveals the very heterogeneous nature of the arguments used in the building of scientific knowledge and the complexity of their overall architecture. The building of a formal theory of the trace of these mental processes on the classical grounds of logic seems quite impossible. Instead, we propose a flexible methodology based on some local formal models, integrated in a global strategy. This strategy allows an empirical, but systematic, description of the process of reasoning as a whole.

The local models can be very different, from plausible inference to conditional transitivity. Their integration is based on some argumentative markers or structures (topoï). We propose a procedural semantics for some of them.

This paper is based on the AVEROES Project, a study of the sea-borne trade in the Occidental Mediterranean Sea during the Roman Empire.