M: The Greek alphabet must have been invented by some individual who knew the Phoenician writing system and who wanted to have some way of recording Homeric epics and thereby preserving expressions of a highly developed tradition of oral poetry. P: Your hypothesis is laughable! What would have been the point of such a person' s writing Homeric epics down? Surely a person who knew them well enough to write them down would not need to read them; and no one else could read them, according to your hypothesis.
Attempting to undermine M's hypothesis by making it appear absurd is an argumentative strategy that P uses in responding to M.