Karl Pearson

PEARSON, Karl (born 1857), English mathematician and philosopher, one of the leaders of English eugenics. Together with Galton (see), he was the founder of that branch of biology which is called biometrics (see) and which applies the methods of mathematical statistics to the study of biological problems. Together with Galton, Pearson is also a founder of eugenics (see). He was a professor of mathematics at Cambridge, then received a chair in eugenics at the University of London, and subsequently became director of the Galton Laboratory for National Eugenics. Pearson is a consummate subjective idealist, the "clearest, most consistent, hostile to verbal evasions, Machist" (Lenin). A "conscientious and honest enemy of materialism" (Lenin), he, for example, expresses his conception of space and time in the following way: "We cannot assert," he says, "that space and time have a real existence; they are not in things, but in our mode of perceiving things" ("The Grammar of Science"). The works of his school in the field of biometrics are characterized by extreme abstractness. Ignoring concrete biological research, Pearson and his school attempt to solve biological problems exclusively by the methods of mathematical statistics, which could not but lead to numerous, completely false conclusions (especially in the field of genetics, where this school denies, for example, the significance of Mendelism), as well as to sharp opposition from the majority of biologists against the research methods and conclusions of Pearson. In the field of eugenics, Pearson's statements do not differ in essence from the judgments of vulgar bourgeois eugenicists. At one time, Pearson had a connection with the labor movement, appearing in workers' clubs to propagate reformist socialism. Pearson's philosophy was subjected to sharp criticism by Lenin ("Materialism and Empirio-criticism").

Of Pearson's works, the most important are: "The Chances of Death and Other Studies in Evolution" (London, 1897), "The Grammar of Science" (London, 1911; there is a Russian translation "Grammar of Science"), "National Life from the Standpoint of Science" (London, 1925), "The Life, Letters and Labours of Francis Galton" (Cambridge, 1914–24). Pearson is the founder and editor of the journals "Biometrika" (Cambridge-London, since 1901) and "Annals of Eugenics" (London, since 1926).