Steelmanning: Argue Against the Best Version

Beginner

If you can only beat the dumb version, you haven't won anything

01 The Concept

A strawman misrepresents an opponent's position as a weaker version, then defeats that. It's satisfying and useless — you've refuted something nobody believes. Steelmanning is the opposite discipline: reconstruct the strongest, most charitable version of the position, including arguments its actual advocates might not have made well, and engage with that.

This isn't politeness; it's self-interest. If your view can only survive against a caricature, you don't know whether it's correct — you just know you can beat a version nobody holds. The practical test is Rapoport's rule: you should be able to state the other side's position so accurately that they say 'yes, that's exactly what I think,' before you criticize it. Most people discover they can't. That failure is information: you were arguing against your model of them, not against them.

02 Case Study

CASEDaniel Dennett, *Intuition Pumps and Other Tools for Thinking* (2013), presenting Anatol Rapoport's rules; John Stuart Mill, *On Liberty* (1859)

The philosopher Daniel Dennett popularized a set of rules for criticism originally formulated by the game theorist Anatol Rapoport, and they're deliberately demanding. Before you're permitted to criticize, Dennett writes, you must first re-express your target's position so clearly and fairly that they say 'Thanks, I wish I'd thought of putting it that way.' Second, list any points of agreement. Third, mention anything you've learned from them. Then you may rebut. Dennett's point was that this procedure works on the critic as much as the target — going through it honestly often reveals you'd misunderstood the position, or that your disagreement is narrower than you thought. John Stuart Mill made the sharper version of the case in 1859: 'He who knows only his own side of the case knows little of that.' Someone who has never seriously confronted the strongest opposing argument doesn't actually understand their own position — they've just never had it tested.

→ Why it matters

Rapoport's rules force you to reconstruct an opponent's view until they'd endorse your version of it. The process usually reveals you were arguing with your model of them — and as Mill argued, someone who knows only their own side knows little of that.

03 Key Points

01A strawman defeats a weakened misrepresentation — satisfying and worthless

02Steelmanning means engaging the strongest version of the opposing view

03If your position only beats a caricature, you don't know whether it's right

04Rapoport's rule: restate their view until they agree it's accurate, then criticize

Next: Not All Evidence Is Equal →