Sherlock Holmes

Sherlock Holmes

… . I propose to devote my declining years to the composition of a textbook which shal focus the whole art of detection into one volume.

Sherlock Holmes: The Adventure of the Abbey Grange

Sherlock Holmes is sometimes compared to a bloodhound. He smels out clues, folows them, and catches criminals. He is very good at this, and although he sometimes fails (as in The Yelow Face) his success rate is very high. Now there is an art in doing this, which Sherlock Holmes cals the art of detection, and he is an expert in this art. In fact he was planning on writing a textbook on the subject when he retired. But as far as we know he never got around to it.

Sherlock Holmes is not the only one who folows clues, scientists do as wel, , and probably al of us. For it is by folowing clues that we find out things on our own, doing so without being told by those in the know. Sherlock Holmes catches criminals, and then they confess, not the other way 'round. Scientists find things out by themselves, not by

asking God. Now finding out things on our own is not easy, but in ways big or smal most of us would have had this kind of experience whether we are aware of it or not. This is to say in practice we al know something about this art which here, folowing Sherlock Holmes, we are caling the art of detection. Indeed when reading Sherlock Holmes or other detectives few of us would hesitate to put in our two cents worth: we are competent to criticise their techniques since we too know something about this art.

Most people think of the art of detection as a form of reasoning. It is not deductive reasoning, obviously, but something similar. Sometimes they point out the diference by saying deductive reasoning is reasoning forwards whereas in the art of detection we are reasoning backwards. They are both forms of reasoning; it is just that they move in opposite directions.

What evidence is there to support the view that the art of detection is a form of reasoning? It would seem there is a great deal. Watson cals Sherlock Holmes the world's greatest reasoning machine. Would he do this if the art of detection were not a form of reasoning? Look at al the dificult cases Sherlock Holmes has solved.