Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Chapter 8 Question # 1


In the story “Silver Blaze”, Sherlock Holmes tells Watson that when it comes to the art of reasoning many people rely on opinion and unsupported assumptions. The difficulty, he maintains, is to detach the framework of undeniable fact from the embellishments of hearsay and reports. I fell like what Sherlock Holmes meant by this was that you need to have legitimate proof to back up your reasoning. When you start giving out opinions and unsupported assumptions it turns the reasoning into something completely different that doesn’t make sense in the end. A personal experience that popped into my head instantly while thinking of this was that about 3 years ago my friends were planning me a surprise sweet 16 birthday party. Since it was a secret, I thought that they were purposely excluding me from their hangouts and whenever I would come up to them they would all just stop talking so I felt really left out and out of place. Finally after confronting them, I realized it was all a misunderstanding and felt like a complete idiot for going off with unsupported assumptions and just jumping to conclusions. 

1 comment:

  1. Hello Shortie,

    I agree with what you said. I think that Sherlock is telling Watson to separate facts from emotions(opinions). Finding the truth about something, without looking at the opinions of others is such a huge thing to do. It really helps one think more logically, and maturely. Being able to stop, think, and process information is such a huge tool to have. Like you said, you misunderstood a situation with your friends, and it made it hard to understand the situation. Next time, you can use this chapter and do what Sherlock told Watson to do. Well, at least you learned from it. Right?

    Take it easy,

    -Greek Guy

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