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What is the logical process used by Sherlock Holmes called?

Question #96613. Asked by tragic_flawed.
Last updated Sep 29 2021.

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zbeckabee star
Answer has 7 votes
Currently Best Answer
zbeckabee star
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19 year member
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Answer has 7 votes.

Currently voted the best answer.
Abduction is a logical analytical process, but it isn't "science." Abduction is pattern recognition, or proof by process of conformance or elimination. It's the process used by Sherlock Holmes...

Nowhere is the power of abductive thinking made clearer than in Eco and Sebeok's book, The Sign of Three, (1983) which compares Peirce's approach to thinking with the reasoning of two great detectives Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes and Poe's Dupin. The reasoning approach used by detectives in crime fiction is very similar to the interpretive process of abduction which has been described as "educated guessing toward a hypothesis." In both cases the process begins with observations and then proceeds in a back-and-forth process of developing hypotheses and comparing the observations with information known and filed in memory.

link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abductive_reasoning

link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._Auguste_Dupin

Response last updated by CmdrK on Sep 29 2021.
Jun 13 2008, 11:44 AM
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elburcher star
Answer has 4 votes
elburcher star
24 year member
1529 replies avatar

Answer has 4 votes.
Sherlock Holmes is a famous fictional detective of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, who first appeared in publication in 1887. He is the creation of Scottish-born author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. A brilliant London-based detective, Holmes is famous for his intellectual prowess, and is renowned for his skillful use of "deductive reasoning" while using abductive reasoning (inference to the best explanation) and astute observation to solve difficult cases.

Deductive reasoning is reasoning which uses deductive arguments to move from given statements (premises), which are assumed to be true, to conclusions, which must be true if the premises are true.[1]

link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deductive_reasoning

link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherlock_Holmes




Jun 13 2008, 12:47 PM
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star_gazer star
Answer has 3 votes
star_gazer star
22 year member
5236 replies avatar

Answer has 3 votes.
As an interesting side note Sherlock Holmes never said "Elementary my dear Watson."

link http://www.snopes.com/quotes/signature/elementary.asp

Jun 13 2008, 4:18 PM
author
Answer has 4 votes
author
23 year member
2834 replies

Answer has 4 votes.

Jun 13 2008, 6:43 PM
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