Sherlock Holmes on Reasoning

1. How I rediscovered Sherlock Holmes It was in the fall of 1987. This year, people all over the world celebrated the Centenary of Sherlock Holmes. Of course I knew who Sherlock Holmes was, since I had read several stories of Holmes during my high school days, and watched some TV programs on Holmes, afterward. But, actually, I did not know Holmes really well, because my memories were rather vague, and I did not have any clear idea as regards Holmes’ method of reasoning, although I became a scholar and my specialty was logic and philosophy of science. But, fortunately, the Centenary celebration produced many books on Holmes, including reprints of Japanese translation of Holmes stories. One day, I came across, in a bookstore, a thick volume that contains most of Holmes stories. In the evening I began to read A Study in Scarlet, the very first book Conan Doyle wrote on Holmes. Guess what happened. The chapter 2 of this book has the title “The Science of Deduction”, and this alarmed me. Dr. Watson began to assess Holmes’ repertory of knowledge. He said Holmes had no knowledge of philosophy. He still did not know what sort of job Holmes was doing. A few pages later, a crucial paragraph came, when Watson notices an article in a magazine on the table: