Dictionary

steelman en · NOUN

Etymology

From steel + -man. For the second definition, coined as the inverse of straw man.

Meanings

1. A male steelworker.
2. A stronger version of an argument that one is about to critically analyze.
   • a "steel man" is an improvement of someone's position or argument that is harder to defeat than their originally stated position or argument. 2011 October 24, Luke Muehlhauser, “Better Disagreement”, in LessWrong:
   • I want to make that strawman into a steelman, but I eliminated "the pursuit of happiness" from my to-do list so many years ago that I don't even know where I'd begin. 2012 July 7, Guy Srinivasan, “Wireheading Steelman”, in lw-seattle (Usenet):

Forms

Antonyms

strawman

Hypernyms

steelworker · person · steeler · millworker · worker

Relateds

Steelman · steeler · Steelers · steely · Man of Steel · Stalin

steelman en · VERB

Etymology

From steel + -man. For the second definition, coined as the inverse of straw man.

Meanings

1. To repair flaws in an argument before analyzing it critically; to refute or to weaken the force of a stronger version of an argument than what was actually given.
   • It is possible that while preparing for the talk I will manage to convince myself that the problem is in fact resolved or dissolved. In that case I will treat you to my best steelmanning of the problem, and its resolution. 2015 February 11, Daniel Armak, “Re: volunteers for feb 24.”, in LessWrong Tel Aviv (Usenet):
   • Perhaps the argument should be steelmanned in that we should generally avoid using algorithms which are so complex that they aren't glass boxes. 2015 June 18, rndn, “Going Deeper into Neural Networks”, in Hacker News forums:
   • I don't agree with the argument, because of 4. If I were to steelman it, which I may try but after work or maybe during lunch, I would first try to make it impervious to this assault: 2012 July 7, Guy Srinivasan, “Wireheading Steelman”, in lw-seattle (Usenet):
   • And America would benefit if our culture of argument elevated the opposite approach, steel-manning, “the art of addressing the best form of the other person’s argument, even if it’s not the one they presented.” […] Coming full circle to our NPR host’s project, Messinger argues that “steelmanning makes you a better person. 2017 June 26, Conor Friedersdorf, “The Highest Form of Disagreement”, in The Atlantic, archived from the original on 30 Jun 2017:

Forms

Antonyms

straw man

Coordinates

sanewash

Relateds

principle of charity

Translations (1)

es abordar un argumento amacizado (Translations)