C. Auguste Dupin discussing Dupin's method in the light of Charles Sanders Peirce's logic of making good guesses or "abductive reasoning," Nancy Harrowitz first quotes Poe's definition of analysis and then shows how "Poe the semiotician is running the gamut of possibilities here—inferences, reasoning backwards, visual, sensual and aural signs, reading faces. Playing cards with the man would have been an interesting experience." There is considerable controversy about the philosophical nature of Dupin's method. According to biographer Joseph Krutch, Dupin is portrayed as a dehumanized thinking machine, a man whose sole interest is in pure logic. However, Krutch has been accused elsewhere of
Louis Ellies Dupin Louis Ellies Dupin Louis Ellies du Pin, or Dupin (17 June 1657 – 6 June 1719) was a French ecclesiastical historian, who was responsible for the "Nouvelle bibliothèque des auteurs ecclésiastiques " Dupin was born at Paris, coming from a noble family of Normandy. His mother, a Vitart, was the niece of Marie des Moulins, grandmother of the poet Jean Racine. When ten years old he entered the college of Harcourt, where he graduated M.A. in 1672. At the age of twenty Dupin accompanied Racine, who made a visit to Nicole for the purpose of becoming reconciled to the gentlemen