Posts Tagged ‘G.K. Chesterton’
“Wisdom cries out in the streets, and no man regards it”*…
From Kieran Healy, a nifty visualization of the relationships among three time-honored eponymous “rules”: “Occam’s Razor,” “Chekhov’s Gun,” and “Chesterton’s Fence.”
“Razor, Gun, Fence” from @kjhealy.co.
* Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part 1 (echoing Proverbs 1:20-21, in which Lady Wisdom is portrayed calling out in public places, but most often ignored)
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As we ponder perspicacity, we might recall that on this date in 2012 a tragic instance of Chekhov’s Law occurred: a mass shooting occurs at a movie theater in Aurora, a Denver suburb, killing 12 people—the youngest a 6-year-old girl—and injuring at least 70 others… one of a way-too-long list of the guns around us in the U.S. going off in mass shootings.
“The criminal is the creative artist; the detective only the critic”*…
Arthur Conan Doyle’s estate has issued proceedings, complaining that Enola Holmes, a recently released film about Sherlock Holmes’ sister, portrays the great detective as too emotional.
Sherlock Holmes was famously suspicious of emotions. “‘[L]ove is an emotional thing,’ he icily observed, ‘and whatever is emotional is opposed to that true cold reason which I place above all things’.” “I am a brain’, he told Watson. ‘The rest of me is a mere appendix’.”
I can imagine that many professional scientists and philosophers would feel affronted if they were accused of being emotional animals. Holmes is a model for them. He’s rigorous, empirical, and relies on induction.
But here’s the thing. He’s not actually very good. Mere brains might be good at anticipating the behaviour of mere brains, but they’re not good for much else. In particular Holmes is not a patch on his rival, Chesterton’s Father Brown, a Roman Catholic priest. Gramsci writes that Brown “totally defeats Sherlock Holmes, makes him look like a pretentious little boy, shows up his narrowness and pettiness.” Brown is faster, more efficient, and, for the criminal, deadlier. This is because, not despite, his use of his emotions.
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In science it is rather more important to find out the right answer than to identify an answer that will fit one’s currently ruling paradigm. In moral philosophy it is rather more important to find the morally correct course than to identify one that doesn’t outrage the zeitgeist. Father Brown can help. Sherlock Holmes can’t.
“Lessons for Philosophers and Scientists from Sherlock Holmes and Father Brown“
For an example, see “Peirce on Abduction.”
[Image above: source]
* G.K. Chesterton, The Innocence of Father Brown
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As we get in touch with our feelings, we might spare a thought for Humphrey DeForest Bogart; he died on this date in 1957. An actor whose career began in the theater, his motion picture roles made him a cultural icon; in 1999, the American Film Institute selected Bogart as the greatest male star of classic American cinema. While there can certainly be legitimate debate as to his most memorable role, his turns as a detective (Sam Spade in The Maltese Falcon; Phillip Marlowe in The Big Sleep) are certainly among the contenders.
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