In chapter 8, the short story, “Silver Blaze”, is about
critical thinking and reasoning. Sherlock Holmes is investigating and he shares
a piece of advice with Watson, another character in this short story. Sherlock
says, “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”
and the point he is trying to make by this statement is that people are very
quick to make assumptions. People should
look for facts and not rely on rumors. Holmes also interviewed people and
collected that information to figure out how the racehorse had disappeared.
But, what is explained about interviews with people is that it is extremely
vital, but not always reliable because different people might have interpreted different
occasions. Although Holmes could have relied on witness testimony, he applied “argument
by elimination” and this eliminated some of the possibilities, leaving him the
answer.
After reading the short story “Silver Blaze”, I realize that people nowadays have already got used to follow what the public say. Sherlock holmes as a famous investigator reminds me about news are sometimes fake and do not have any supportive evidence. I think some of the news can be said as a media that spread the rumors in an extremely fast way. Once a news published, people tend to believe in what it says without finding any proof. We, as an educated people, should know how to classify what to believe or not. One of the efficient ways is to eliminate all impossible assumptions which is what the story taught me.
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