Mysterious Death of Silas Deane The authors of "The Strange Death of Silas Deane: The Problem of Selecting Evidence.", James West Davidson and Mark Hamilton Lytle explore the skill of The two authors show how to select evidence in the case ofthe death of Silas Deane to answer the question of why Deane would commitsuicide.Silas Deane is an official of the United States government that gets intotrouble while in Europe. While in Europe, Silas makes a few mistakes that angermany people (pg xv ,p. 4,5 ), but he decides that it is best to return toAmerica. On the voyage home, his ship is delayed because of a storm and hebecomes ill. The circumstances surrounding Silas Deane's death are verymysterious, Why would he commit suicide if he was so up beat ? There is twopossible explanations that are given, one is that Deane is down on his luck andcommits suicide and the other is of murder.Because of the conflicting reports, it is hard for anybody to say whathappened, so one must look deeper. To find the truth one must look in betweenthe lines to find the truth, and the use of inference comes into play.The authors hint that the use of inference is key to selecting evidence in thedeath of Silas Deane and drawing conclusions. Without the use inference, onewould become stuck and search aimlessly for answers. Still the use of inferencemay not be enough and one must wait for new evidence to come up in order to findan answer....
