An Agent-Based Dialogical Model with Fuzzy Attitudes

This paper presents an extension to an agent-based model of opinion dynamics built on dialogical logic DIAL. The extended model tackles a pervasive problem in argumentation logics: the difference between linguistic and logical inconsistency. Using fuzzy logic, the linear ordering of opinions, used in DIAL, is replaced by a set of partial orderings leading to a new, nonstandard notion of consistency as convexity of sets of statements. DIAL allows the modelling of the interplay of social structures and individual beliefs, inspired by the interplay between the importance and the evidence of an opinion formulated in the Theory of Reasoned Action, but DIAL was restricted to argumentation about one proposition. FUZZYDIAL allows for a more natural structure of dialogues by allowing argumentation about positions in a multidimensional space.