“How often have I said to you that when you have
eliminated the impossible, whatever remains,
however improbable, must be the truth?”
May 1859-July 1930
Born in Edinburgh,
Scotland
Physician and Writer
Wrote stories while
waiting for patients
Wrote 68 books
A Study in Scarlet (1887) is the first appearance
of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson.
Sherlock Holmes was modeled after Doyle’s
university professor, Joseph Bell.
“It is most certainly to you that I owe Sherlock
Holmes... [R]ound the centre of deduction and
inference and observation which I have heard
you inculcate I have tried to build up a man”
Passion for definite and exact knowledge
Believed that by examining 1000 crimes, he
would have the knowledge needed to solve the
1001 crime
Believed the world was full of obvious things that
the no one took the time to observe
“It is of the utmost importance in the art of
detection to be able to recognize, out of a
number of facts, which are incidental and which
are vital…..”
In this story, Dr. Watson meets Sherlock
Holmes for the first time. Together, they try to
solve a murder mystery involving the bloody
word, Rache.
Deductive Reasoning - Deductive arguments
are attempts to show that a conclusion
necessarily follows from a set of premises or
hypotheses
Modernism
Forensic Science
Revenge
Friendship
First description in a work of fiction of method of
problem solving
Helped create the English Murder Mystery
Genre:
Closed Setting – isolated house or train
Corpse
Circle of Suspects
Investigating detective with superb reasoning
powers
Introduction of deductive reasoning
Doyle was very interested in the legal process
Investigated two closed cases
“Circumstantial evidence is a very tricky thing. It
may seem to point very straight to one thing, but
if you shift your own point of view a little, you may
find it pointing in an equally uncompromising
manner to something entirely different.”
Both cases were overturned
Consequently, Doyle’s expertise helped create
the English Court of Appeals in 1907.
1891 - Doyle wrote to his mother and said,
"I think of slaying Holmes... and winding him up for
good and all. He takes my mind from better
things."
His mother responded, "You won't! You can't! You
mustn't!“
1893 - Sherlock Holmes plunged to his death in
the story, “The Final Problem.”
1901 - Holmes was back in The Hound of
Baskervilles
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZFdH76H1l
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