ABSTRACT
Pragmatism is the one enduring tradition of social and philosophical thought to have begun uniquely in America. Since Charles Sanders Peirce first sketched the idea of pragmatism in 1878, it has come to influence thinkers around the world. Thus, when attempting to understand pragmatism, the first fact to consider is its association with the down-to-earth, action-oriented values many consider the dominant cultural ethic in the United States. Of course, generalities of this sort leave out the fine-grained details; no single set of values or ideas can be simply American or German or French or whatever. Yet, it remains that social theories are always rooted in historical circumstance and, therefore, reflect something of the social experiences of a given culture. Still, social theories would not endure beyond the time of their origins were they not able at least to call attention to some set of truths that transcend a locale or a time.
