[FOM] Is there a compendium of examples of the "power" of deductive logic?

[Neil Tennant]

On Fri, 9 Dec 2005, Richard Haney wrote:

> So I am wondering about the possibility of stunning examples that can
> serve as paradigms for the power of logic in empirical applications. 
> In other words I am looking for empirical evidence that demonstrates
> unequivocally that deductive logic is indeed worthy of study.

How about Newton's derivation of Kepler's laws of planetary motion, using
as premises the law of gravitation, the second law of motion, and whatever
mathematical axioms are needed for the calculus involved?

Another example, drawing on less technically demanding mathematics (if any
at all) would be the deduction underlying the central Darwinian insight.
This is the insight that whenever the three conditions

	Variability
	Heritability
	Differential reproduction

hold ofr a population of self-reproducing entities, there will be

	Adaptive evolution.

(Note that this is the case even if the individuals never die.)

Neil Tennant