How Did Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Use Deductive Reasoning?

Withstanding the Test of Time: A Study In Scarlet While not the first detective story ever written, A Study in Scarlet, written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in the late 1880s, had a tremendous intellectual impact on society, in part because of the time in which it was written . Both the Reformation, which began in the early 1500s, and the Enlightenment, which began in the late 1600s, sparked a spirit of questioning, which in turn changed how people thought and learned about the world around them. Conan Doyle, through A Study in Scarlet, reinforces the idea of deductive reasoning that had been espoused by Rene Descartes, a French philosopher of the 1600s, and gives it a slightly different spin. Even though Enlightenment ideals were still

Arthur Conan Doyle was very interested in science at one point in his life, and in the books, it is seen that Sherlock too has an affinity for science. Sherlock’s intense observation and skill of deduction allowed him to take notice of the smallest of details, which in turn helped physicians to see things in a new light . In addition, tactics that Holmes uses, like utilizing footprints to determine characteristics of criminals, as well as methods in later books were adopted by both American and British detectives years after Holmes’ publication. Holmes’ methods were revolutionary, and everyone could tell . The fact that near the beginning of A Study in Scarlet, Holmes analyzes a crime scene, better than the professional police, speaks volumes. Holmes, a scientific man who pays attention to details, is contrasted with the “professionals”; unscientific in their thinking, who cannot even come close to claiming significant evidence . This can be seen as a parallel to figures of authority in this time versus the average citizen. People now valued science more than blindly following religion, and Holmes in a way embodies that value, just in a different setting. During the nineteenth century, the Enlightenment spirit had transformed into something that is now commonly referred to as scientific rationalism. Beginning in the nineteenth century it was often not accepted that one could solve things with mere reason alone. Holmes, through his somewhat deductive reasoning, comes to his conclusions through observation, but ultimately uses his own judgment, which contradicts society’s loss of faith in reason. At one point Holmes even says: “When you have excluded the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth”. He traces the facts he has observed in order to find what caused them, essentially