Reconstructing Pragmatism

The figure of Richard Rorty stands in complex relation to the tradition of American pragmatism. On the one hand, his intellectual creativity, lively prose, and bridge-building fueled the contemporary resurgence of pragmatism. On the other, his polemical claims and selective interpretations function as a negative, fixed pole against which thinkers of all stripes define themselves. Virtually all pragmatists on the contemporary scene, whether classical or “new,” Deweyan, Jamesian, or Peircean, use Rorty as a foil to justify their positions. The resulting divisions and internecine quarrels threaten to thwart and fragment the tradition’s creative potential. More caricatured than understood, the specter of Rorty is blocking the road of inquiry and future development of pragmatism. Reconstructing Pragmatism moves beyond the Rortyan impasse by providing what has been missing for decades: a constructive, nonpolemical account of Rorty’s relation to classical pragmatism. The first book-length treatment of Rorty’s intellectual debt to the early pragmatists, it establishes his selective appropriations not as misunderstandings or distortions but as a sustained, intentional effort to reconstruct their thinking. Featuring chapters devoted to five key pragmatist thinkers—Charles Sanders Peirce, William James, John Dewey, Josiah Royce, and Jane Addams—the book draws on archival sources and the full scope of Rorty’s writings to challenge prevailing misconceptions and caricatures. By illuminating the critical resources, still largely untapped, that Rorty offers for articulating classical pragmatism’s ongoing relevance, the book reveals limitations in received images of the classical pragmatists and opens up new modes of understanding pragmatism and why it matters today.

Multiple Fixed Pole-Based Rational Approximation for Fractional Order Systems

Our topic is the rational approximation of fractional order systems under Riemann–Liouville definition. This is a venerable, vast, fundamental area which attracts ongoing attention in coming years. In this work, the multiple fixed-pole scheme is developed. First, new schemes with different relative degree are developed to approximate fractional operators. Then, the fractional order is extended to the case of α>1. A discussion is made on the uniformity between the differentiator-based method and the integrator-based method. Afterward, the multiplicity of pole/zero is further generalized. In this framework, the nonzero initial instant and nonzero initial state are considered. Four examples are finally provided to show the feasibility and effectiveness of the developed algorithms.

On algebraic integrals of equations of motion of a complex mechanical system

Criteria for the existence of certain types of algebraic first integrals of the equation of motion of a mechanical system of variable mass composition and variable configuration are given. The carrier body of the system (base body) rotates around a fixed pole in a stationary homogeneous gravity field under the influence of specified nonstationary forces. The types of partial integrals are indicated and restrictions are established that determine their existence.

On the theory of similarly changeable mechanical systems

The motion around a fixed pole of a mechanical system with variable mass composition and configuration is considered, changing in time according to the law of structural-dynamic similarity. The properties of changing the mass value and configuration of the system are given.

The field of algebraic integrals of equations of motion of a complex mechanical system

Criteria for the existence of certain types of algebraic first integrals of the equation of motion of a mechanical system of variable mass composition and variable configuration are given. The carrier body of the system (base body) rotates around a fixed pole in a stationary homogeneous gravity field under the influence of specified nonstationary forces. The types of partial integrals are indicated and restrictions are established that determine their existence.

La “fortezza invisibile”: il telegrafo ottico Chappe nella Francia napoleonica

The “invisible fortress”: the Chappe optical telegraph in the Napoleonic FranceEven in the defensive and fortifying processes, two aspects can be found: the material component and the immaterial one. If all the constructive, material and structural procedures are the first, for example, all that concerns remote communications (maximum optics) belongs to the second, an indispensable tool to complete an optimal strategy for offensive and/or defensive operations. Remote optical transmissions are closely connected to the management of defensive systems: this is also what happens with the optical telegraph of Claude Chappe, conceived during the French Revolution and adopted by Napoleon for the potential inherent in the strategic and territorial logic, as for the organization, structuring and sending of encrypted messages (which since the sixteenth century had also seen the interest of Leon Battista Alberti. The densest part of the network spreads to France, from Paris to the borders of the nation. In Europe, you will see achievements in Spain, up to Russia. The Lyon-Paris-Venice line also led to the construction of a Lombard-Piedmontese section. The present contribution stems from a conspicuous research, founded on the twenty-year collaboration of Marotta with the FNARH (Fédération Nationale des Associations de Recherche Historique sur la Poste et les Télécommunications). The system included the installation in high positions (hills, towers or bell towers) of a mechanical device, which could be reached at a distance of kilometers. On top of a fixed pole of about 5 m, the apparatus consisted of a central axis (ordinateur) at the ends of which two mobile arms (indicateurs) were fixed which allowed (in the variation of the reciprocal positions and inclinations) to realize multiple signals, at the base of an entire encrypted visual alphabet, arrived in 1841 up to 61000 messages. Multiple types of models made. The contribution will return the chronological developments of the system, in time and space of territories involved, with the relative comparisons of types, models and languages, also through 3D modeling.