Incorporating critique and argumentation in DSS

Ž . This paper proposes a framework for a decision support system DSS based on critique and argumentation. We make a distinction between positive and negative types of critique and argue that both of them are valuable in making substantiated decisions. We further propose use of debate and argumentation as means for more informative decision support. We discuss the types of knowledge used for critiquing and the appropriate form of knowledge representation. The architecture of the proposed DSS contains intelligent critiquing agents which provide the user with the qualitative feedback on candidate decisions. q 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.