The Pragmatics of the Object took its first steps in the 1980s, when the Geneva School was immersed in the functional turn, investigating the processes of psychological construction. However, despite Geneva being the school of Developmental Psychology that has given the most importance to objects and action in psychological construction, it was not interested in the social and cultural dimensions of objects. “How do children manage to use objects for their function during their first year of life?” This is the question we asked ourselves, thus introducing a pragmatic and cultural dimension into objects. In addition to obeying causal relationships, objects exist within a normative universe. Objects have public rules of use that are shared by their user community. Using the material world in a functional way provides a common ground, enabling communication with others from that shared knowledge. It was and remains striking today that such a central issue in the foundations of socio-cognitive development has not interested early childhood researchers more. In this chapter I present the theoretical and epistemological roots that inspire us, and that coexisted and shaped the Geneva School in the 70s and 90s. I highlight the work of Piaget and Inhelder, Sinclair and Bovet, and the microgenetic research of the Groupe de stratatégies et résolution de problèmes [Problem solving and strategies Group] with the participation of Karmilloff-Smith, Saada-Robert, Edith Ackerman, among others. I will present the lights and shadows of three direct influences on the PO: Piaget’s sensorimotor development framework, Bruner’s work on early development inspired by Vygotsky and the pragmatism of the linguistic turn, and the semiotics of American philosopher Charles S. Peirce, the founder of pragmaticism.