The following selection from the secondary literature is organised under four headings: philosophy, statistics, biology and society. Pearson\u2019s work does not divide so neatly and several items could as well appear elsewhere; this polyvalence is probably one of the appeals of Pearson research. Here I mention some works spanning the categories.<\/p>\n
The new biography by Porter has a different emphasis from most of the literature on Pearson for it focuses on the formation of the statistician<\/p>\n
T. M. Porter (2004) Karl Pearson: the Scientific Life in a Statistical Age. Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press.<\/p>\n
The book makes impressive use of the abundant archival material to give a very full account of Pearson\u2019s life and thoughts in the period before 1900, treating his later career in more cursory fashion. The treatment of Pearson\u2019s work in literature, history and physics and his first efforts in statistics is much fuller than that available elsewhere. The first part of E. S. Pearson\u2019s biography had covered similar territory but in much less detail and with less discussion of the subject\u2019s motivation. Porter\u2019s book has been widely and favourably reviewed. See here for a list of the reviews.\u00a0 Two are available on-line: Lee in Notes and Records of the Royal Society, 59, (2005) and Aldrich in American Scientist.<\/p>\n
The inter-connectedness of Pearson\u2019s work was taken for granted by his contemporaries. More recently it has been emphasised by the sociologist MacKenzie and historian Magnello.<\/p>\n
D. A. MacKenzie (1981) Statistics in Britain 1865-1930: The Social Construction of Scientific Knowledge. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.<\/p>\n
M. E. Magnello (1996) Karl Pearson\u2019s Gresham Lectures: W. F. R. Weldon, Speciation and the Origins of Pearsonian Statistics, British Journal of the History of Science, 29, 43-64.<\/p>\n
MacKenzie\u2019s sociology of scientific knowledge approach has been criticised by Sullivan (see also Olby)<\/p>\n
P. Sullivan (1998) An Engineer Dissects Two Case Studies: Hayes on Fluid Mechanics and MacKenzie on Statistics in N. Koertge (ed.) A Home Built on Sand: Exposing Postmodernist Myths about Science, New York: Oxford University Press.<\/p>\n
D. A. MacKenzie (1999) The Science Wars and the Past\u2019s Quiet Voices, (with response by P. Sullivan and reply by Mackenzie), Social Studies of Science, 29, 199-234.<\/p>\n
The danger of over-simplifying Pearson\u2019s activities is emphasised by<\/p>\n
M. E. Magnello (1999) The Non-correlation of Biometrics and Eugenics: Rival Forms of Laboratory Work in Karl Pearson\u2019s Career at University College London, (In two Parts), History of Science, 37, 79-106, 123-150.<\/p>\n
Galton had an important influence on both Pearson\u2019s statistical work and his genetical work. Two new biographies discuss Pearson and his relationship with Galton<\/p>\n
N. W. Gillham (2001) A Life of Sir Francis Galton: From African Exploration to the Birth of Eugenics, New York: Oxford University Press.<\/p>\n
M. Bulmer (2003) Francis Galton: Pioneer of Heredity and Biometry, Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press<\/p>\n
Pearson\u2019s quarrel with R. A. Fisher encompassed both statistics and genetics. Fisher\u2019s side is described by<\/p>\n
J. F. Box (1978) R. A. Fisher: The Life of a Scientist, New York: Wiley.<\/p>\n
E. S. Pearson\u2019s (1936\/38) biography does not treat the quarrel but see the references under Statistics and Genetics & evolution and Edwards (1994).<\/p>\n
The relationship between Pearson\u2019s philosophy of science and his genetics is discussed by<\/p>\n
B. Norton (1975) Metaphysics and Population Genetics: Karl Pearson and the Background to Fisher\u2019s Multi-factorial Theory of Inheritance, Annals of Science, 32, 537-553.<\/p>\n
P. R. Sloan (2000) Mach’s Phenomenalism and the British Reception of Mendelism, Comptes Rendus de l’Academie des Sciences Series III Sciences de la Vie, 323, no. 12, pp. 1069-1079(11).<\/p>\n
J. Gayon (2007) Karl Pearson: les enjeux du ph\u00e9nom\u00e9nalisme dans les sciences biologiques, pp. 305\u2013324 of J. Gayon and R. Burian (eds.) Conceptions de la science, hier, aujourd’hui, demain, Brussels: Ousia. 2007.<\/p>\n
The relationship between his philosophy of science and his thinking about correlation is discussed by Hilts and by<\/p>\n
J. Aldrich (1995) Correlations Genuine and Spurious in Pearson and Yule, Statistical Science, 10, 364-376. pdf\u00a0 JSTOR<\/p>\n
Pearson\u2019s position on spurious correlation is treated in the earliest known uses entries on \u201cspurious correlation\u201d and \u201cSimpson\u2019s paradox\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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