Great Riddlers: Sherlock Holmes

Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective invented by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, conceptualized in 1887 and this series ended in 1927. During this time the character became very popular with the novels and short stories appearing in magazines. Since this time the character of Sherlock Holmes has been adapted into countless TV shows, plays and movies. Most famously and most recently Holmes was portrayed by Robert Downey Jr in the film Sherlock Holmes in 2009. He received a Golden Globe award for this portrayal and it did well enough to warrant a sequel Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows. In addition to this movie there are currently two popular TV shows based on Sir Conan Doyle's works entitled 'Sherlock' and 'Elementary'. Both of these shows were picked up for extra seasons.

On to the character himself, Holmes is an eccentric man who cares little for the plainness of society. He is somewhat inverted and he is always calm and collected. But his main character trait that we are concerned about is his ability to take the smallest and meaningless facts or traits of a person or situation to draw large assumptions. In this sense he is very good at solving riddles. 

This sort of reasoning has been called "Holmesian deduction". To draw these assumptions he uses simple abduction where he observes something and connects it to another piece of information that sufficiently explains the original observation. He explains this best in one of the original novels when he says 'From a drop of water a logician could infer the possibility of an Atlantic or a Niagara without having seen or heard of one or the other'.

Most appearances Holmes make in TV, movies, or books begin with him demonstrating his great riddle solving abilities and Robert Downey Jr's appearance in the 2009 film was no exception. Early in the movie when Holmes meets Watson's fiance he makes some deductions about her. Just by noticing that she has a little ink on her face and that she is wearing expensive jewelry he can tell that the child she is governess to is about eight years old and that she does not punish him for things. He knows his age from the height of the ink and he knows that she does not punish him because the jewelry is from the child's wealthy parents who would not give her it if she punished their child.

Sherlock Holmes is probably the most well-known detective of all times and he is still all over the media from television to movies. He is a great character and we can all take a lesson from him with regards to logic.