BBC Sherlock Fan Forum - Serving Sherlockians since February 2012 / The Science of Deduction.. and, erm, Induction!

**Posted by The Doctor** July 18, 2012 5:35 am

.. so far had an interesting week, including a friendly debate with a philosopher (gotta love the range of people I meet at work) regarding an issue that bugged me for a while.

Basically, the point is:

"Deduction: an argument whose premisses are claimed to provide conclusive evidence for the truth of its conclusion."

"Induction: arguments that establish the truth of the conclusion as probable or probably true. So, informally at least, an inductive argument claims its conclusion follows with some degree of probability. "

.. and a visual comparison at http://www.socialresearchmethods.net/kb/dedind.php

In other words, most of the work we see Sherlock perform is inductive in nature, though some deduction might be thrown in at times/back up certain aspects.

I reckon, the 'Science of Deduction' sounds heaps cooler though!

*shuffles back to the lab*

**Posted by Sherlock Holmes** July 19, 2012 8:13 pm

Oh my God, it's weird that you should post this because I'm a member of the Sherlock Holmes Society of London and they have a magazine called the Sherlock Holmes Journal. Basically, there was an article in it this month which said exactly the same thing - that the Holmes method of "deduction" is actually induction.

When I get chance I'll type it out for you cause I don't think they publish the articles online.

**Posted by The Doctor** July 20, 2012 12:56 pm

awesome - eager to read that here Down Under, thanks!

*all of a sudden doesn't feel so far away from London!*

**Posted by Sherlock Holmes** July 21, 2012 7:16 pm

Damnit. Can't find the article anywhere now, typical.

Anyway, there are quite a few things online about this:

http://www.emotionalcompetency.com/sci/sm4.htm - very detailed scientific analysis comparing the two fields.

http://traderpsychology.blogspot.co.uk/2007/07/inductive-vs-deductive-reasoning.html - short essay

http://www.ssr.org/Induction.shtml - detailed study

**Posted by hepzibah** July 22, 2012 12:36 pm

I thought 'induction' was a type of oven. Truly.

**Posted by JaneCo** July 22, 2012 1:06 pm

It's a hob hepzibah

**Posted by hepzibah** July 22, 2012 1:24 pm

Does it have nobs? Is it called Bob?

**Posted by Davina** July 22, 2012 2:18 pm

Do you have Hobnobs in your country?

**Posted by hepzibah** July 22, 2012 2:29 pm

had to google to check what they looked like! We have something similar, not sure what they are called. Do you have Timtams? To die for!

http://www.arnotts.com/our-products/products/arnotts-tim-tam.aspx

**Posted by Davina** July 22, 2012 3:06 pm

No we don't have Timtams.

**Posted by Sherlock Holmes** January 7, 2013 11:17 pm

More on this:

http://www.physics.smu.edu/pseudo/Induct/

**Posted by Jacco111** January 19, 2013 6:34 pm

I thought this was common knowledge, I mean, I learned that in Highschool