The Grammar of Science

The author's "Grammar of Science" is the first sustained exposition, in English, of Ernst Mach's sensationalism - a philosophy of science that was to exert a major influence on the development of logical positivism. Although the physical and biological sciences are in a flourishing condition, Pearson explains, there remains doubt and confusion about their foundations - in particular, concepts such as those of matter, force and natural law seem to lend themselves to confusions of a metaphysical character. Scientific laws, Pearson insists, are not accounts of the nature and properties of things-in-themselves; rather, they are mere descriptions - in a sort of conceptual shorthand - of the "routines" of our sensations. The atoms and the ether of the physicist are mere conceptual models, ie. human creations serving a valuable role in aiding our "economy of thought", only confusion can result if we regard them as realities. The clarification of science and the elimination of metaphysics can be seen as inseparable aspects of the same project.