Editing Karl Pearson (section)

==Einstein and Pearson's work==
When the 23-year-old [[Albert Einstein]] started the [[Olympia Academy]] study group in 1902, with his two younger friends, [[Maurice Solovine]] and Conrad Habicht, his first reading suggestion was Pearson's ''[[The Grammar of Science]]''. This book covered several themes that were later to become part of the theories of Einstein and other scientists.<ref>Herbert, Christopher (2001). "Karl Pearson and the Human Form Divine," in ''Victorian Relativity: Radical Thought and Scientific Discovery'', Chicago University Press, pp. 145–179.</ref> Pearson asserted that the laws of nature are relative to the perceptive ability of the observer. Irreversibility of natural processes, he argued, is a purely relative conception. An observer who travels at the exact velocity of light would see an eternal now, or an absence of motion. He speculated that an observer who travelled faster than light would see time reversal, similar to a cinema film being run backwards. Pearson also discussed [[antimatter]], the [[Four-dimensional space|fourth dimension]], and wrinkles in time.

Pearson's [[principle of relativity|relativity]] was based on [[idealism]], in the sense of ideas or pictures in a [[mind]]. "There are many signs", he wrote, "that a sound idealism is surely replacing, as a basis for natural philosophy, the crude [[materialism]] of the older physicists." (Preface to second Ed., ''[[The Grammar of Science]]'') Further, he stated, "... science is in reality a classification and analysis of the contents of the mind ... In truth, the field of science is much more [[consciousness]] than an external world." (''Ibid.'', Ch. II, § 6) "Law in the scientific sense is thus essentially a product of the human mind and has no meaning apart from man." (''Ibid.'', Ch. III, § 4)<ref>Pearson, Karl (1900). [https://archive.org/stream/grammarofscience1900pear#page/n7/mode/2up ''The Grammar of Science'']. London: Adam & Charles Black, pp. vii, 52, 87.</ref>