Procatalepsis raises an objection to your own argument before your opponent can, and answers it. The anticipated objection is stated fairly enough to be recognisable, then dealt with — and the audience, having seen it handled, is less receptive when it arrives for real.
It is the most intellectually respectable device in this library, and the easiest to fake.
Paul uses it continually: “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid.” The objection is voiced in the opponent's mouth, given its strongest short form, and then refused.
Also called prolepsis or anticipatory refutation. In contemporary writing it is what every “you might object that…” paragraph is doing.
Procatalepsis is genuinely good practice. An argument that has considered its own weaknesses is a better argument, and showing that work signals confidence, since only someone secure in their case invites the strongest objection to it.
The device is also the most effective available cover for not doing that. A writer can raise a weak version of the objection, dispatch it easily, and acquire all the credit for intellectual honesty while the real objection stands untouched. The audience sees an objection raised and answered, and files the matter as settled.
This makes procatalepsis the figure where the straw man most often hides — not as an attack on an opponent, but as a pre-emptive misstatement of what the opponent would say. The distinguishing question is whether someone who actually holds the opposing view would recognise their position in the version presented. If they would wince, the device is doing the opposite of what it appears to.
