Karl Pearson the scientific life in a statistical age / Theodore M. Porter.

Author/creator Porter, Theodore M., 1953-
Format Electronic
Publication InfoPrinceton : Princeton University Press,
Descriptionviii, 342 pages : illustrations, portraits ; 24 cm
Supplemental ContentFull text available from Ebook Central - Academic Complete
Subjects

Contents An improbable personage -- Lehrjahre of a poetic wrangler -- Apostle of renunciation: a new Werther -- Pearson's progress: a nineteenth-century passion play -- Cultural historian in a political age -- Intellectual love and the woman question -- Ether squirts and the inaccessibility of nature -- Scientific education and graphical statistics -- The statistical reformation -- Composing a life.
Review "Karl Pearson, founder of modern statistics, came to this field by way of passionate early studies of philosophy and cultural history as well as ether physics and graphical geometry. His faith in science grew out of a deeply moral quest, reflected also in his socialism and his efforts to find a new basis for relations between men and women." "Theodore Porter's portrait of Pearson extends from religious crisis and sexual tensions to metaphysical and even mathematical anxieties. Pearson sought to reconcile reason with enthusiasm and to achieve the impersonal perspective of science without sacrificing complex individuality. Even as he longed to experience nature directly and intimately, he identified science with renunciation and positivistic detachment. Porter finds a turning point in Pearson's career, where his humanistic interests gave way to statistical ones, in his Grammar of Science (1892), in which he attempted to establish scientific method as the moral educational basis for a refashioned culture."--Jacket.
Bibliography noteIncludes bibliographical references (pages 315-328) and index.
Access restrictionAvailable only to authorized users.
Technical detailsMode of access: World Wide Web
Genre/formElectronic books.
LCCN 2003054820
ISBN9780691114453 (alk. paper)
ISBN0691114455 (alk. paper)
ISBN9780691126357
ISBN0691126356

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