This article addresses the French reception of two pragmatist philosophers : Richard Rorty and Richard Shusterman. Pragmatism has been used and appropriated by French academics, in many ways, in philosophy as in social sciences. The frame of the author’s interpretation is informed by the sociology of intellectuals. His aim is to highlight different phenomena connected to the international dissemination of ideas—namely misreading and misunderstanding. As Bourdieu argues, “texts circulate without their context.” Hence, it seems that the context of reception overdetermines the readings and uses of texts.