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Summary: A Dialogue Game Protocol for Multi-Agent Argument
over Proposals for Action
KATIE ATKINSON k.m.atkinson@csc.liv.ac.uk
Department of Computer Science, University of Liverpool, Liverpool L69 7ZF, UK
TREVOR BENCH-CAPON tbc@csc.liv.ac.uk
Department of Computer Science, University of Liverpool, Liverpool L69 7ZF, UK
PETER MCBURNEY p.j.mcburney@csc.liv.ac.uk
Department of Computer Science, University of Liverpool, Liverpool L69 7ZF, UK
Abstract. We present the syntax and semantics for a multi-agent dialogue game protocol which permits
argument over proposals for action. The protocol, called the Persuasive Argument for Multiple Agents
(PARMA) Protocol, embodies an earlier theory by the authors of persuasion over action which enables
participants to rationally propose, attack, and defend, an action or course of actions (or inaction). We
present an outline of both an axiomatic and a denotational semantics, and discuss implementation of the
protocol, in the context of both human and artificial agents.
Keywords: argumentation, practical reasoning, protocols, BDI agents.
1. Introduction
Developers of real-world software agent systems typically desire either the system as
a whole or the agents within it to effect changes in the state of the world external to
the system. Whether the software agents represent human bidders in an online
auction or the system collectively manages some resource, such as a utility network,
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