The Philosophy of Sherlock Holmes

Contributors

199 Contributors David Baggett is professor of philosophy at Liberty University in Lynchburg , Virginia. His most recent book is Good God: The Theistic Foundations of Morality (2011), with Jerry L. Walls. He has seen too much not to know that the impression of a woman may be more valuable than the conclusion of an analytical reasoner. Gregory Bassham teaches at King’s College (Pennsylvania), where he specializes in philosophy of law and critical thinking. He wrote Original Intent and the Constitution: A Philosophical Study (1992), coauthored Critical Thinking: A Student’s Introduction (4th ed., 2010), and has edited or coedited several volumes on pop culture and philosophy, including “The Lord of the Rings” and Philosophy (2003), The Ultimate Harry Potter and Philosophy (2010), and “The Hobbit” and Philosophy (forthcoming). Greg thinks it’s highly significant that his cat has never barked in the night. Carrie-Ann Biondi is associate professor of philosophy at Marymount Manhattan College in New York. She has published articles on Aristotle’s moral and political philosophy, contemporary political philosophy, and philosophy of education. Students often remark on her uncanny ability to know who is approaching her office simply by the sound of their footsteps. Kyle Blanchette holds a master’s degree in theology from Asbury Theological Seminary. He is currently pursuing a master’s degree in philosophy at Western Michigan University, leaving conspicuous traces on his path toward doctoral work in philosophy. Bridget McKenney Costello is an assistant professor of sociology at King’s College in Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania. Her work examines the strategic exercise of alternative scientific beliefs (astrology, folk medicine) among socially marginalized groups, a line of inquiry guaranteed to keep her brain attic marvelously cluttered. 200 Contributors ElizabethGlass-Turner is a freelance writer with a diverse collection of published articles, interviews, and essays covering topics ranging from drug cartel violence in Juárez, Mexico, to Narnia producer Douglas Gresham; aging and dementia; and Liberian president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. Though her nickname from college is Bitty, she prefers to go by “the woman.” Kevin Kinghorn is associate professor of philosophy of religion at Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Kentucky. He has published in the fields of ethical theory, religious philosophy, and philosophy of mind. He has also written on evidential reasoning, though his own powers of deduction are not exactly Holmesian, given that Holmes didn’t have daily battles to locate his keys. Michel Le Gall, former associate professor of Middle Eastern and Islamic history at St. Olaf College, is a senior speechwriter at a large New York–based global consultancy. His interest in Holmes was sparked at the age of eleven when he first read The Hound of the Baskervilles and roamed Montreal’s Mount Royal Park armed with a toy revolver, in pursuit of an imaginary Stapleton. At the top of his bucket list is bog hopping in the great Grimpen mire of Dartmoor. D. Q. McInerny is a professor at Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary, where he teaches philosophy. He is the author of Being Logical: A Guide to Good Thinking, A Course in Thomistic Ethics, and Philosophical Psychology. Like Sherlock Holmes, he does not have an e-mail address. Massimo Pigliucci is professor of philosophy at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. His most recent book is Nonsense on Stilts: How to Tell Science from Bunk, and he is currently working on a book on what science and philosophy can tell us about the meaning of life. He has religiously read all the Sherlock Holmes stories, in chronological order of appearance. David Rozema is professor of philosophy at the University of Nebraska at Kearney. He is coauthor of Platonic Errors, or, Plato, a Kind of Poet (1998), and has published numerous articles on the works of Plato, C. S. Lewis, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Søren Kierkegaard, Joseph Conrad, and Alexander Solzhenitsyn. He is currently ascertaining all the facts necessary for formulating a theory about why it is a fundamental mistake to theorize before one has ascertained all the facts. Contributors 201 Dorothy L. Sayers (1893–1957) was a playwright and novelist, most famous for her Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries, including Strong Poison, Gaudy Night, and The Five Red Herrings. Charles Taliaferro is professor of philosophy at St. Olaf College and the author or editor of fifteen books, including The Image in Mind, coauthored with Jil Evans. When Charles was a teenager, he thought it was...