Logic with Sherlock

Day: Thursdays

Dates: September 12 – October 17, 2024

Time: 9:30am-11:30am

Location: Carleton University

Price: $150+HST

A zoom link will be sent by email 1-2 business days prior to the first day of the lecture series.  The zoom link provided is the same link for all 6 weeks of this lecture series.

Overview

This series is an Introduction to Logic through the Sherlock Holmes stories of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Logic is the discipline of philosophy concerned with precise reasoning. Participants will explore logic by examining the methods of Conan Doyle’s beloved fictional detective. Have your magnifying glass ready! In this series, we explore Epistemology, the branch of philosophy that asks how we know what we know. We discuss what it means to know versus what it means to believe. And we examine how women, historically, have been dismissed as less capable of logical thinking than men.

Topics

Week One: Logic with Sherlock. This class will introduce students to logic through the first Sherlock Holmes case, A Study in Scarlet. Participants will be introduced to logical techniques such as analysis and argumentation. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s work will be placed in historical context.

Week Two: “You See, But You Do Not Observe.” An introduction to critical thinking and the most common logical fallacies through the Sherlock Holmes case A Scandal in Bohemia. This class will introduce a feminist approach to Logic, and we identify logical fallacies inherent to sexism.

Week Three: Together at Last; Logic and Emotion. Our third class will challenge the idea that logic and emotion can or should be separated. To explore this perspective, we examine Sherlock Holmes’s case The Three Garridebs. We also consider feminist theory and the work of philosopher David Hume.

Week Four: Epistemology and The Hound of the Baskervilles. Nothing in the novella The Hound of the Baskervilles is how it seems. The correct basis of knowledge seems unclear even to Sherlock Holmes. We will use this case to explore how we know what we know. How can we ever be truly sure our beliefs are justified? Philosopher René Descartes, who examined this question, will be a useful resource.

Week Five: A Feminist Approach to Logic. Through Sherlock Holmes’s cases The Copper Beeches and The Adventure of the Second Stain, we will identify and critique the sexism embedded in Conan Doyle’s stories. We will ask how modern readers and scholars should react to this sexism and discuss how sexism continues to affect Logic today.

Week Six: The Dark Side of Logic. All the brilliant Logic of Sherlock Holmes does not stop him from being, on occasion, spectacularly racist and sexist. This is never more the case than in The Sign of Four, a story that relies on a racist idealization of colonialism. We will ask whether logic can ever be a neutral tool.

Lecturer Biography

Rebecca Robb is a PhD candidate in Ethics and Public Affairs at Carleton University. She holds a Bachelor of Philosophy from the University of Victoria and a Master of Philosophy from Carleton University. Her teaching philosophy centres on an interdisciplinary approach to ethics. While ethics is a branch of philosophy, Rebecca finds it can also be approached through theology, literature, history, or other academic disciplines. At its most basic, the study of ethics is the study of what makes an action morally right or wrong. Rebecca especially enjoys connecting with students new to the discipline. Her focus is always on engaging students in dialogue and encouraging them to bring their life experience to the study of philosophy.