Pragmatic Version Research Articles

Structural Optimization of Occupational Risk Assessment in Romania: Case Study for the Activities Carried Out Within a Hydrotechnical Construction

Abstract After 18 years since the legislative changes in the field of safety and health at work introduced the obligation to assess occupational risks at all workplaces, we note that the indigenous method of the National Research and Development Institute for Labor Protection in Bucharest was quasi-generalized in applicability. Starting from this practical reality, this paper aims to offer a more synthetic and pragmatic version of the application of the method for more complex jobs/activities, in which several socio-professional categories of workers are involved, by structural optimization of the procedure for the implementation of the specific stages and tools, in order to increase the effectiveness of the assessment of occupational injury and illness risks. This finality is achieved through a case study applied to a construction activity carried out within an important hydro-technical project. The main advantages of the approach proposed by the authors are summarized.

Self-creation Without Natural Limits? On a Certain Blindness in Richard Rorty’s Anti-authoritarian Pragmatism

Abstract This article argues that Richard Rorty’s philosophy has a blind spot regarding our relationship with nature. It examines his distinct version of pragmatism to find ways to address this shortcoming. Rorty’s antirepresentational “pragmatism as anti-authoritarianism” and its anthropocentric character are discussed. His linguistic instrumentalism is problematized since it entails an unapologetic Baconian view of knowledge as power and nature as a manipulable object. While Rorty’s Darwinian image of the human being somewhat relativizes this Baconian humanism, it does not address the dependence of the human species on its natural environment. According to the romantic dimension in Rorty, the human being is rather exalted, and the imperative of infinite self-creation ignores natural limits. However, there are valuable resources in Rorty’s philosophy that can limit this imperative and his instrumentalism. For instance, Rorty’s anti-authoritarianism reminds us of the moral responsibility of choice about (our) nature. Furthermore, his inclusivist ethic of solidarity implies the potential extension beyond the human species. Lastly, his notion of philosophy as cultural politics could foster democratic discussion on the pressing issues of technological advance.

A Pragmatic Theory of Computational Artefacts

AbstractSome computational phenomena rely essentially on pragmatic considerations, and seem to undermine the independence of the specification from the implementation. These include software development, deviant uses, esoteric languages and recent data-driven applications. To account for them, the interaction between pragmatics, epistemology and ontology in computational artefacts seems essential, indicating the need to recover the role of the language metaphor. We propose a User Levels (ULs) structure as a pragmatic complement to the Levels of Abstraction (LoAs)-based structure defining the ontology and epistemology of computational artefacts. ULs identify a flexible hierarchy in which users bear their own semantic and normative requirements, possibly competing with the logical specification. We formulate a notion of computational act intended in its pragmatic sense, alongside pragmatic versions of implementation and correctness.

Every view is a view from somewhere: Pragmatist laws and possibility

Humean accounts of laws are often contrasted with governing accounts, and recent developments have added pragmatic versions of Humeanism. This paper offers Mitchell’s pragmatist, perspectival account of laws as a third option. The differences between these accounts come down to the role of modality. Mitchell’s bottom-up account allows for subtle gradations of modal content to be conveyed by laws. The perspectival character of laws is not an accident or something to be eventually eliminated – it is part of how this modal content is conveyed. I conclude with a discussion of the metaphysical commitments in Humeanism as requiring a perspectiveless view of the manifold from outside, and how Mitchell’s situated account is better able to account for the substantive notion of possibility involved in scientific laws.

MAPping affective dimensions of behavior: Methodologic and pragmatic advancement of the Multidimensional Assessment Profiles scales.

Rigorous validation of the full developmentally sensitive normal:abnormal spectrum, including evaluating the incremental value of age-specific behaviors, is necessary for nuanced characterization of dimensional features of psychopathology. To maximize the clinical utility of transdiagnostic approaches to risk identification, derivation of psychometrically sound, pragmatic versions with empirically derived cutoffs is also key. This special section has a central focus on rigorous, developmentally-based measurement of irritability as an exemplar of this theory- and pragmatically-based approach. Elevated irritability is a robust transdiagnostic predictor of the common psychopathologies of childhood. The Multidimensional Assessment Profiles Temper Loss (MAPS-TL) Scales are the only irritability tool specifically designed to capture the normal:abnormal dimensional spectrum. These have been extensively investigated in preschool age but lack rigorous modeling at older and younger ages. In this special issue, (with three independent-and one longitudinal-set of samples), we test and improve measurement of irritability as a transdiagnostic phenotype of psychopathology risk as it unfolds across development, expanding the MAPS-TL scale in three important ways: (1) extending irritability dimensional modeling and the developmental specification approach to older ages, (2) advancing science to practice translation by generating pragmatic irritability screening tools across ages, and (3) extending the dimensional, developmental specification approach to other dimensions of behavior, that is, internalizing. Collectively, the special issue operationalizes and advances application of a neurodevelopmental, dimensional and transdiagnostic approach to psychopathology.

Constraints and Recent Solutions of Optical Camera Communication for Practical Applications

Visible light communication (VLC) has emerged as a promising technology for wireless communication due to its advantages of the vast optical spectrum, high energy efficiency, and no electromagnetic interference radiation. With the widespread adoption of LED infrastructure and camera-equipped smart devices, optical camera communication (OCC) has gained momentum as a pragmatic version of VLC based on commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) devices. Compared with VLC systems based on photodiodes (PD), the information-carrying capability of OCC enables it to provide a wide range of services in the areas of intelligent transportation, indoor positioning, underwater communication, and the Internet of Things (IoT). This paper presents a brief overview of the OCC system, focuses on the constraints affecting OCC performance, and offers feasible solutions for dependable data transmission in complex and diverse scenarios. Finally, this paper summarizes the potential extended applications of OCC, hoping to push this advanced form of optical wireless communication toward practical deployments in our daily lives.

The Voice of Business in Denmark’s Neoliberal Turn

ABSTRACT Many historians have argued that the Nordic welfare societies underwent a major transformation in the later decades of the 20th century, and neoliberalism has been identified as a key driver of this transformation. This article contributes to this field of contemporary history as it addresses the rhetoric and role of organized business in Denmark’s neoliberal turn, focusing especially on the Confederation of Danish Industry. Using conceptual historical methodology, the article identifies a rhetoric of competitiveness in the communication of organized business and traces how this rhetoric changed from 1970s to 2010s. This leads to the identification of two discontinuities. First, the article shows how the 1980s saw a transformation in which the industrialists increasingly called for state engagement to further competitiveness in the private sector, especially in relation to research and innovation. Second, the article shows how the 2010s saw a transformation in which the rhetoric of competitiveness adopted ideas about sustainability. What emerges from this analysis is a rather pragmatic version of neoliberalism that was born out of business interests and which since the late 1980s was developed as an integrated part of a consensus in the Danish policy elite.

The origins of perspective taking lie in iconic language use: Unifying theories of signs, conversation, and narrative perspective

This paper proposes a theoretical reduction of the existence of perspective taking in discourse to the combination of two basic methods of communication: iconic simulation, and description by means of conventional symbols. This includes an integration of the depiction theory of quotation and a pragmatic version of the theory of signs. Perspective taking is argued to be a consequence of the iconic simulation of acts, linguistic acts in particular. The basic fact that a single utterance can comprise both depictive and descriptive components is in turn the basis for the occurrence of different variants of speech and thought representation, which are traditionally discussed under the rubric of indirect and free indirect discourse. On this basis, it is argued that the phenomena can actually be analyzed more insightfully (and more simply) directly in terms of interactions between specific linguistic items and the distinction between depiction and description. In addition, this “composite utterance” approach to perspective taking combines abstract conceptual clarity and simplicity with a high degree of flexibility in the way such interactions can work out in specific situations, which allows it to also serve as a basis for the analysis of “multiperspectival” and “doublevoiced” discourse.

Pragmatist quietism: A meta‐ethical system. By Andrew Sepielli, Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. 2022. vi + 231 pp. £55 (Hbk)

Pragmatist quietism: A meta‐ethical system. By Andrew Sepielli, Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. 2022. vi + 231 pp. £55 (Hbk)

Fish versus Dworkin: A Comparison between Two Versions of Legal Pragmatism

Fish versus Dworkin: A Comparison between Two Versions of Legal Pragmatism

The Birth of American Phenomenology in Josiah Royce's "New Phenomenology"

This article explores the birth of American Phenomenology in Josiah Royce’s “New Phenomenology”, proposed in his Thought Diary (1878-1880), in dialogue both with Husserl’s Contemplative Practice and with Peirce’s version of pragmatism.

Fantastic Pragmatism

The everyday sense of pragmatic involves ideas of sensible practice, cautious realism about current situations, flexibility allied to technical knowledge, and the prioritisation of what works, as opposed to unrealistic and damaging ideals. I argue against this technical and sensible flavour of pragmatism, pre-sent in many of its historical and contemporary versions. Pragmatism can be taken as technically-minded, realistic and practical, thereby avoiding the excesses of abstract ideologies. Instead, I will defend the thesis that pragmatism should be fantastic, in the precise sense of metaphysically inventive. In making this latter argument, my main critical point will be against the metaphysically «quietist» version of pragmatism, in particular as defended by David Macarthur. My claim is counter-intuitive, since it seems to commit pragmatism to the forms of idealism that it has sought to criticise and escape. If metaphysics propose ideal pictures of the world, as opposed to detailed, local and evidence-based descriptions - allied to rigorous experimentation - then the fantasies of metaphysics are exactly what pragmatism should avoid. In response to this critical counter, I will argue that pragmatism should be metaphysically inventive because it cannot avoid being metaphysical. However, I also argue that it should be self-critical in its fantastic creativity.

The Point of Margolis’ Dissatisfaction with Peirce (and Pragmatism)

Abstract Margolis’ philosophical thought and career is framed by the pragmatism that dominated his early education and his vision of a “resurgent” pragmatism as the most promising direction for an increasingly eclectic Western philosophical tradition. This version of pragmatism is based on Peirce’s formulation of the pragmatic maxim, but Margolis sees the implications of that maxim as running counter to a central strand of Peirce’s own thought: fallibilism as an infinitist, self-correcting process of inquiry asymptotically tending toward to truth and reality. Margolis argues that this version of fallibilism is untenable and un-pragmatic, and his most mature work on the subject identifies an “abductive turn” in Peirce’s philosophy which points in the direction of an improved pragmatism, a pragmatism that is anarchic, relativistic, cast in terms of tolerances instead of laws, and without “Hope” in Peirce’s sense.

Shedding Light on the “Eclipse” Narrative: Some Notes on Pragmatism in the Twentieth Century

Shedding Light on the “Eclipse” Narrative: Some Notes on Pragmatism in the Twentieth Century

Traverses Between Cognitive Consonance and Existential Crisis: Notes on Jiang Menglin’s Pragmatist Notion of Rensheng Guan and His Views on Suicide from 1919

The article explores Jiang Menglin’s philosophy of life and his notion of rensheng guan (“view on life”) in the period between his studies in the USA and the year of the May Fourth events in 1919. In the first part, the paper traces the origins of Jiang’s idea back to the then-prevalent version of pragmatism propagated by John Dewey and other pragmatist thinkers gathered at Columbia University, while in the subsequent parts it aims to illuminate the later developments of Jiang’s own version of pragmatism in the context of the May Fourth intellectual discourse. While the article aims at presenting a positive outline of Jiang’s philosophy, it also endeavours to expose its less explicit aspects through its apophatic (exposition by negation or denial) expositions in Jiang’s writings from the period. Finally, it focuses on Jiang’s contributions to the debate on suicide that developed after Lin Deyang’s suicide in November 1919.

»Pragmatism is not a Weltanschauung«

This essay explores the role of the German expression Weltanschauung in the philosophy of Charles Sanders Peirce. Two philosophical contexts are distinguished in which the term occurs in his writings: a) the classical pragmatist’s discussion of what constitutes Pragmatism and b) the discussion of the systematic place of a »scientific philosophy«, both in terms of its relation to other sciences and in distinction from everyday beliefs. Thus, on the one hand, the essay compares Peirce’s version of pragmatism with the views of other, more subjectivist pragmatists, who used the term »Weltanschauung« to denote their philosophical enterprises: William James and F. C. S. Schiller. On the other hand, Peirce’s ideal of scientific philosophy, particularly of scientific metaphysics, is contrasted with ›non-scientific metaphysics‹ – or how Peirce calls it: Weltanschauung. The essay also shows how his conception of scientific philosophy differs from Wilhelm Wundt’s idea that philosophy should provide a »Weltanschauung« based on the special sciences.

Justificatory Moral Pluralism: A Novel Form of Environmental Pragmatism

Moral reasoning typically informs environmental decision-making by measuring the possible outcomes of policies or actions in light of a preferred ethical theory. This method is subject to many problems. Environmental pragmatism tries to overcome them, but it suffers also from some pitfalls. This paper proposes a new method of environmental pragmatism that avoids the problems of both the traditional method of environmental moral reasoning and of the general versions of environmental pragmatism. We call it ‘justificatory moral pluralism’ – it develops the intuition that normative ethical theories need not be mutually exclusive. This leaves room for important forms of pluralist environmental ethics that do not require a once-and-for-all prior commitment to an ethical theory when deciding about policies or courses of action related to the protection of the environment. Justificatory moral pluralism offers a viable solution to the recurrent conflicts between efficient environmental decisions and the need for moral reasoning.

Solution-Focused Zone of Proximal Development: A Vygotskyan Contribution to Solution-Focused Therapy 🇨🇳 🇹🇼 🇫🇷

This theoretical paper explores the possibility of combining principles of solution-focused therapy with theories of learning and development by the psychologist Lev Vygotsky, whose thinking led to the development of Cultural-Historical Activity Theory. The similarities and complementaries between these traditions merit attention. Further, SFT has been characterized as an eclectic and constantly evolving approach, the theoretical and philosophical foundations of which are somewhat scattered. Hence, the article attempts to redefine the philosophical and theoretical location of SFT through a “Vygotskyan and CHAT-informed” lens. Since the emphasis in SFT seems to be on the identification and detailed description of the client’s skills, the author offers a new view of SFT as a pragmatic version of social constructionism. Based on Vygotsky's concepts of 'cultural mediation and 'the zone of proximal development', the author proposes a new concept, namely solution-focused zone of proximal development. The concept highlights learning-in-SFT as an optimally designed non-individualistic and expansive process, leading to empowered independence and creativity. Chinese (Simplified) (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dZ0eoolYHSPB26LBv6ZL4LxWVC1pMMHj/view?usp=drive_link) Chinese (Traditional (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XOlDDw3XEHkZ9AccgSUMBKE0jii0x1Fd/view?usp=drive_link) French (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sy7D06yMUDpymuhiGdEADtL0Z2YhH3lH/view?usp=drive_link)

Two Shapes of Pragmatism

Abstract The ethics of belief is concerned with the question of what we should believe. According to evidentialism, what one should believe is determined by evidence only. Pragmatism claims that practical considerations too can be relevant. But pragmatism comes in two shapes. According to a more traditional version, practical considerations can provide practical reasons for or against belief. According to a new brand of pragmatism, pragmatic encroachment, practical considerations can affect positive epistemic status, such as epistemic rationality or knowledge. In the literature, the distinction between the two versions of pragmatism is not always made. If it is mentioned, it is quickly put aside. Sometimes, it is simply overlooked. As evidentialists face two distinct pragmatist challenges, they must get clearer on the distinction. But it matters for pragmatists too. As I see it, if one accepts one version of pragmatism, one should reject the other. This paper’s goals are to get clearer on the distinction and argue that both pragmatisms are independent. Accepting one version does not commit one to accept the other. Moreover, even if both pragmatisms tend to be neutral toward one another, I will argue that traditional pragmatism has good reasons to reject pragmatic encroachment and vice versa.

Focus Attracts Attachment.

There is growing evidence that pitch accents as well as prosodic boundaries can affect syntactic attachment. But is this an effect of their perceptual salience (the Salience Hypothesis), or is it because accents mark the position of focus (the Focus Attraction Hypothesis)? A pair of auditory comprehension experiments shows that focus position, as indicated by preceding wh-questions instead of by pitch accents, affects attachment by drawing the ambiguous phrase to the focus. This supports the Focus Attraction Hypothesis (or a pragmatic version of salience) for both these results and previous results of accents on attachment. These experiments show that information structure, as indicated with prosody or other means, influences sentence interpretation, and suggests a view on which modifiers are drawn to the most important information in a sentence.