Construct Steel Positions Not Straw Ones We need to learn to argue more effectively to get at the truth

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Construct steel positions: We often employ a straw position to help win a disagreement when we should use a steel one.

Straw Positions

You may be familiar with the concept of a strawman position, often referred to as a straw man. To be gender-neutral, I call it a straw position.

When we argue with someone and are more interested in winning the argument than getting at the truth, we often employ a straw position to help win the disagreement.

We construct a weak or erroneous version of the other person’s position in order to easily demolish it.

So, we are not arguing against what they said or what they believe; we are arguing against something we have constructed that we know we can effectively argue against.

Steel Positions

In contrast to a straw position, a steel position involves first building the most robust possible version of your opponent’s position. You present this steel version to them and confirm it accurately captures their perspective. Once there is agreement on the most potent form of their viewpoint, you then argue against that steel version rather than a weaker straw one.

This steel approach leads to more constructive and productive debate by ensuring you are debating the best form of the other position.

This video below gives a beautiful example of constructing a steel argument.

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