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Deductive Reasoning - Eliminate the Impossible
“When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.”
- Sherlock Holmes (Arthur Conan Doyle), The Sign of Four
Systematically rule out what cannot be true; what remains must be the answer, even if it seems unlikely.
The Method
- Gather all possibilities
- Eliminate the impossible using facts and logic
- Accept what remains (verify when possible)
Why This Works
- Forces systematic thinking, preventing jumping to conclusions
- Handles unlikely truths we might otherwise dismiss
- Builds confidence through rigorous elimination
Limitations
- Requires discrete, finite possibilities
- Needs clear criteria for “impossible”
- Remaining answer may still need verification
Related Concepts
- [[Primary Sources in Historical Research]] - Using evidence to eliminate possibilities
- [[Source: Eliminate the Impossible]]
Source: [[Eliminate the Impossible - Sherlock Holmes]]
Linked References
- [[Design of Experiments (DoE)]]
A formal way to design a task that explains the variation under conditions.
- [[Inversion]]
Looking at a problem or decision from the opposite point of view to avoid failure rather than …
- [[Primary Sources in Historical Research]]
The importance of primary sources - firsthand accounts from people who were actually there.
- [[Eliminate the Impossible - Sherlock Holmes]]
Sherlock Holmes’s principle of deductive reasoning - eliminate the impossible.