The Philosophy of Sherlock Holmes

Sherlock Holmes and the Ethics of Hyperspecialization

121 Sherlock Holmes and the Ethics of Hyperspecialization Bridget McKenney Costello and Gregory Bassham Sherlock Holmes is highly specialized in the art of criminal detection— hyperspecialized, in fact. He possesses highly trained powers of observation and reasoning, which he pairs with a deep knowledge of matters that bear directlyonhisprofession,includingchemistry,anatomy, thehistory of crime, footprints, bloodstains, mud splatters, and tobacco ashes. Yet Holmes—at least when we are first introduced to him—is almost totally ignorant of many areas of knowledge that virtually all educated Victorians took for granted. For instance, he knows “next to nothing”1 about contemporary literature, philosophy, and politics, and he is so ignorant of modern astronomy that he doesn’t even know that the earth revolves around the sun. When Watson asks why he only pursues knowledge relevant to his profession, Holmes responds by comparing the mind to an attic that must be kept clear of useless and obstructing lumber and that contains nothing “but the tools which may help him in doing his work.”2 Sherlock’s attic analogy is one that many of today’s career-minded college students would cheer. Why waste so much time in college learning useless lumber like history, literature, and philosophy when they could be studying far more relevant things in their career-oriented major courses? Why bother to learn anything, in fact, that doesn’t help one get a good job and make a good living? Arethesestudents—andHolmes—justifiedinplacingsomuchemphasis on vocational education and career success? Is Holmes’s attic metaphor an apt way of thinking about how we should furnish and organize the mind? Does the single-minded pursuit of career success or some particular form of human excellence (for example, athletic success) violate an ethical duty to be 122 Bridget McKenney Costello and Gregory Bassham a well-rounded person, or an informed citizen, or some other duty of personal development or self-improvement? Here we’ll explore these questions with the help of some leading philosophers, educators, and social theorists. This Old Brain Attic The clearest statement of Holmes’s view of education and self-improvement is contained in Watson’s famous introductory character sketch of Holmes in A Study in Scarlet. When Watson expresses astonishment at how little Holmes knows about literature, politics, and so forth, Holmes replies: I consider that a man’s brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose. A fool takes in all the lumber of every sort that he comes across, so that the knowledge which might be useful to him gets crowded out, or at best jumbled up with a lot of other things, so that he has a difficulty in laying his hands upon it. Now the skilful workman is very careful indeed as to what he takes into his brain-attic. He will have nothing but the tools which may help him in doing his work, but of these he has a large assortment, and all in the most perfect order. It is a mistake to think that the little room has elastic walls and can distend to any extent. Depend upon it there comes a time when for every addition of knowledge you forget something you knew before. It is of the highest importance, therefore, not to have useless facts elbowing out the useful ones.3 Holmes here compares the human mind to a woodworker’s attic. He notes three relevant similarities: limited storage capacity, the utility of stored items, and duties of proper stocking and organization. We address each of these in turn. Capacity The mind, says Holmes, is like a “little room,” not a spacious warehouse. It can only store a limited amount of information. Fools who try to cram too much knowledge into their brains will inevitably end up either forgetting some useful bit of information or misplacing it in a jumble of useless facts. Sherlock Holmes and the Ethics of Hyperspecialization 123 Utility A workman’s attic should be well organized and include only tools and lumber that “may help him in doing his work.”4 Likewise, Holmes claims, a person’s mind should be orderly and should include only knowledge that is of practical value. Duties of the Attic’s Owner The workman is not merely able to distinguish between useful and useless tools; as a practitioner of a skilled craft, he has an ethical or professional...