This introduction presents the philosophical and sociological fundamentals of American pragmatism, which centers around a theory of creative action, systematically and in historical context. This theory was initially established by Charles S. Peirce in philosophy and semiotics, and later developed through the social psychology of George Herbert Mead and the pedagogy and political theory of John Dewey. Following the Chicago School of Philosophy founded by Mead and Dewey, the Chicago School of Sociology emerged, whose theory and method form the basis of both symbolic interactionism and Erving Goffman's dramaturgical approach. Today, a neopragmatist theory of creative action is evolving in response to the challenges posed by postmodernism and poststructuralism.