Sherlock Holmes famously espoused the idea “When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.”
No, no NO !
How many well-meaning people have been led astray with this sneaky fallacy by a celebrity puzzle solver? Or even falsely declared someone guilty with this faulty logic.
Its called The Incredulity Fallacy.
It means the asserter, Sherlock Holmes in this case, believes he is so all knowing, that there could not possibly exist another explanation because he has thought of everything; absolutely every possible way a cause could have made this effect happen.
Nonsense — “Our failure to imagine alternatives does not prove there are none.”
“The limits of our imagination are not the limits of reality.”
You’re on a small island when a Banana Pie goes missing. All seven residents constitute a family. All except one boy has an alibi for the loss of the Banana Pie.
But, that does not mean he ate it.
How would you like to be that boy – falsely accused then found guilty by Sherlock Holmes’ reasoning – when you know you did not eat the Banana Pie?
Months later a girl finds the Banana Pie plate in a fox’s Den.
We can never wash the mud off of a false accusation.
That boy’s reputation is forever diminished, despite his innocence.
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