Venomous Pen

Deductive reasoning

Deductive reasoning is the kind of reasoning where the conclusion is necessitated or implied by previously known premises. If the premises are true then the conclusion must be true. For instance, beginning with the premise, "sharks are fish" and "all fish have fins", you may conclude that "sharks have fins". This is distinguished from inductive reasoning and abductive reasoning where inferences can be made with some likelihood but never with complete certainty. By definition, Sherlock Holmes engages in deductive reasoning which reaches specific conclusions. Wryspy 04:13, 29 September 2007 (UTC)

(1) Sign your posts. (2) Read the actual stories. When you've eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth. He reaches specific conclusions. Based on knowledge of how weight displaces other matter, how people move, and other general principles, he deduces a specific piece of information: the size of the person who left a footprint. Inductive reasoning involves coming up with general principles like inducing the theory of gravity. Despite what somebody wrote in the Wikipedia article, deduction involves applies general principles to figure out a specific detail like who a killer must be. (3) The stories say deductive reasoning. That's what he's famous for. The sentence said he was renowned for it. He is not renowned for inductive reasoning. Wryspy 04:46, 29 September 2007 (UTC)

I like the quotation marks. Good compromise. The bit about insuring conclusions is something I shouldn't have quoted, though. That's not in any dictionary definition of deduction. Wryspy 04:57, 29 September 2007 (UTC)

MIA?

So are you on a really long break, or have you given up on Wikipedia? Wryspy 20:22, 6 November 2007 (UTC)