Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective

Those of you who know me, most likely know of my *cough cough* border-line obsession with anything "Sherlock Holmes".

I love practically every version of the fictional detective from the brilliant Basil Rathbone to the masterful Benedict Cumberbatch (well, besides the Robert Downey Jr. movies. I hated those.).

221B Baker Street is familiar territory to me.



Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce


Jeremy Brett and Edward Hardwicke


Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman ("modern" adaption TV show)

So, Savannah, why on earth are you so obsessed with a fictional character?

First off, I do not like calling it an "obsession".

I prefer the terms, "fondness" or "fascination".

What's so wonderful about this Sherlock guy, anyways?

1. He's a detective- I have always loved detective stories, murder mysteries, and the like, so the Holmes series has always appealed to me because of the genre.

2. He is still extremely popular, with many devoted fans from 1878 to present day- The stories and the character are timeless. The world just can't get enough of Sherlock.

3. He's not your average sleuth- Sherlock is a consulting detective. "The only one in the world." Scotland Yard consults him, when they are out of their league in a case, which is almost always. He also takes clients, who go to him when they need help with some rather unusual cases.

4. Not all of the Holmes cases involve murder- There are many stories, where murder or a death is not even mentioned. The Sherlock Holmes canon has very unique cases, that involve anything from ciphers to hidden passageways.

5. The Science of Deduction- This long-term fascination with the consulting detective, mostly has to do with his amazing deduction skills. He can tell a person's past and present, just by a single glance. He is the most observant man in the world (though fictional).

What exactly is "deduction"?

The dictionary defines the term as:
"Logic- a. The process of reasoning in which a conclusion follows necessarily from the stated premises; inference by reasoning from the general to the specific.

b. A conclusion reached by this process."

Sherlock uses this method to solve the many crimes that come his way.

"Let me run over the principal steps. We approached the case, you remember, with an absolutely blank mind, which is always an advantage. We had formed no theories. We were simply there to observe and to draw inferences from our observations."

Sherlock Holmes 

-The Adventure of the Cardboard Box

Basically, the steps of Sherlock Holmes' deductive reasoning are:

1. Begin with an open mind- draw no conclusions about a situation or individual until all data is received. Do not let a "hypothesis" become your "theory". It can affect your over all conclusion.

2. Observe- even the seemingly insignificant details count!

3. Draw a theory from what you see- this is when you put all off your facts and observations together, without an unbiased mind.

4. Narrow it down to reach a conclusion - "Eliminate all other factors, and the one which remains must be the truth." (Sherlock Holmes, "The Sign of the Four")

EXAMPLE: You meet a young man for the first time, and you observe that he has a gold band on his left ring finger. That must means he is married. He looks to be about in his mid-twenties, so he is old enough to have a wife, and the obvious fact of the ring proves your theory.

The above example was an extremely simple one, just to help you further understand  the method of observation and deduction, but it is also proof that we perform deductions, subconsciously, without even thinking about it!

If you see a ring, on an individual's left ring finger, which is where a wedding ring is meant to be worn, and that person looks to be a proper age to be married, than you instantly assume they are married.

Of course, a significant amount of study and work, goes into deducing and observing at Holmesian level, and is practically impossible, unless you devote your lifetime to those methods.

So, to wrap this post up, Sherlock Holmes has always been one of my favorite fictional characters, as I have read the entire canon 2-3 times, and have watched almost every version of the timeless consulting detective.

Obviously, I didn't go into the "deductive reasoning" methods, too far, because this post really isn't supposed to be focused on that, and there are a lot of significant things, I left out in my shortened, watered-down explanation.

If you would like to read more about observation and deduction, preferably based of Sherlock Holmes, I would suggest the book, "How to Think Like Sherlock" by Daniel Smith.

It dives into the methodology of the detective a bit more deeply, and is a very interesting read!

Fellow Sherlockians, share this post, and reply in the comments below! 

Even if you're not a Sherlockian, you're welcome to comment, anyways. :P

Thanks for reading!