Ooh, JonnyBGood said he understands this sort of thing!
And yeah they aren't meant to be persuasive as such. But they are fairly sound in that specific refutations are generally even less persuasive.
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/on...l-arguments/#8
I'd go for #2 for the reasons idi and nod said. Things don't exist in thought; at most, models of them do.