Argumentation-Based Reasoning with Preferences

One of the main objectives of AI is modelling human reasoning. Since preference information is an indispensable component of common-sense reasoning, the two should be studied in tandem. Argumentation is an established branch of AI dedicated to this task. In this paper, we study how argumentation with preferences models human intuition behind a particular decision making scenario concerning reasoning with rules and preferences. To this end, we present an example of a common- sense reasoning problem complemented with a survey of decisions made by human respondents. The survey reveals an answer that contrasts with solutions offered by various argumentation formalisms. We argue that our results call for advancements of approaches to argumentation with preferences as well as for examination of the type of problems of reasoning with preferences put forward in this paper. Our work contributes to the line of research on preference handling in argumentation, and it also enriches the discussions on the increasingly important topic of preference treatment in AI at large.