A Great Discussion

[John DeGaetano]

What a great place to hear from everyone... your experiences and comments that circle around as a Sherlock Holmes enthusiast. I am very thankful to be part of this group.

How have these characters influenced your life?

[C Monohan]

 

Like all great literature that becomes a part of one’s life, the characters take on an essence of their own.  They become people that you feel you know, for you have shared in their lives and adventures. How great to be in the 221B Baker St. sitting room, in front of the fire, listening to Holmes think and Watson relate the details of their latest cases. Holmes is not bound by the conventions of society. I like that. We all need to be less afraid of what others think and free ourselves up to pursue what we are interested in.

[John DeGaetano]

I like what you said... "We all need to be less afraid of what others think." I constantly use this thought when I write, I think it encourages creatively. Thanks for your comment.

[John DeGaetano]

Deductive reasoning, also called deductive logic is a very interesting concept and used in by famous characters in history from Sherlock Holmes to Star Trek's Spock. Growing up, in my mind Spock's reasoning was intriguing. Based on facts, this concept became a great model for business best practices. This process of reasoning from one or more general statements or sequence of events can certainly influence ones life. So if the rules and logic of deduction are followed, this procedure ensures an accurate conclusion... on at least piece of mind in the mental process. How have these characters influenced your life?

[Barbara Piper]

Sherlockian logic is more precisely termed "abduction" than "deduction," or abductive reasoning. Peirce identified this as a form of inference, a guess rather than a firm conclusion. It's the sort of thing that Sherlock Holmes does when he sees ashes trampled in front of a door and concludes that someone is hiding behind the door -- there are other ways in which the ashes could have become trampled, but the supposition that someone comes out from behind the door from time to time is a good guess. Or, "this kind of cut is usually made by a knife; therefore, the cut was made by a knife." The Canon is full of his good guesses, and we assume that the bad ones got buried in that dispatch-box...

BTW, Robert Fish based much of the parody in his Schlock Homes stories on precisely this problem with adbuctive reasoning -- far from ensuring an accurate conclusion, it always leads Schlock Homes to draw wild inferences.

[C Monohan]

"Sherlock Holmes and Philosophy (Popular Culture and Philosophy)" Steiff, Josef; Paperback; £10.63 I just ordered this book. It talks about the philosophy of leaving emotions out of the equation when making decision…looking forward to reading it.  I also so admire Spock....He was my first role model when I was very young. I have found logic to be the best way to make a choice whether I personally care for the choice or not… it has always been the right choice and when I haven't used it...well...all things in life are a lesson.

[John DeGaetano]

We will be performing my short play Sherlock Holmes and A Case of Revenge in NYC soon... always used logic in creating the pieces and thought process. Please let me know how you like the book.