The most thorough account of Pearson’s work in physics and the philosophy of science is in chapter 3 of Porter (2004). Modern textbooks seldom mention Pearson’s contributions to applied mathematics/physics, though the Pearson-Todhunter History is still referred to. Nor is there much historical literature; there are a few remarks in
M. Jammer (1961) Concepts of Mass in Classical and Modern Physics, Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press.
A recent article has examined Todhunter and Pearson together with the other important historians of elasticity
L. A. Godoy (2006) Historical Sense in the Historians of the Theory of Elasticity, Meccanica, 41, Number 5, October, 2006.
Pearson’s philosophy of science has received more attention. Passmore and Porter discuss it in relation to the ideas of other late 19th century physicists
J. Passmore (1968) A Hundred Years of Philosophy, 2nd edition, Harmondsworth: Penguin.
T. M. Porter (1994) The Death of the Object: Fin-de-Siècle Philosophy of Physics, in D. M. Ross (ed.) Modernist Impulses in the Human Sciences, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Thiele has reproduced the correspondence between Mach and Pearson
Joachim Thiele (1969) Karl Pearson, Ernst Mach, John B. Stallo: Briefe aus den Jahren 1897 bis 1904, Isis, 60, 535-542.
Porter draws on Pearson’s novel and passion play to discuss his philosophy taken more broadly—including his attitudes to religion and socialism—in
T. M. Porter (1999) Reason, Faith, and Alienation in the Victorian Fin-de-Siècle in H. E. Bodecker (ed.) Wissenschaft als Kulturelle Praxis. Gottingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.
In this essay Porter compares Pearson with John Henry Newman. Levine compares him with Walter Pater:
George Levine (2000) Two Ways Not To Be a Solipsist: Art and Science, Pater and Pearson, Victorian Studies, 43, 7-42. (available online at http://iupress.indiana.edu/journals/victorian/vic43-1.html
Herbert detects Feuerbach’s influence in the Grammar of Science
Christopher Herbert (1996) Science and Narcissism, Modernism/Modernity, 3, 129-135. Available online to subscribing institutions at
http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/modernism-modernity/v003/3.3herbert.html
The Grammar made little impression on professional philosophers but it was inspiring to a number of scientifically-minded youngsters including Harold Jeffreys and Jerzy Neyman. Raymond Pearl testified to this influence on his generation.
