Introduction to the problem of relevance

Abstract

The author's aim is to provide some key introductory points to the reading of the topic of relevance. First, it should be stressed that the system of relevance provides access to all the «places» of Schutz's analyses, from the world of life to the theory of action, whether they concern the methodological, theoretical or «applied theory» dimensions. Moreover, the system of relevance can be understood as the pivot on which the entire Schutz's interpretative paradigm rotates. The system of relevance contains, at various degrees of articulation, the mechanism of the construction-interpretation of experience based on the principle of the «selective character of the spirit». Although the system (and the process that concerns it) is always understood as unitary, it is distinguished, for heuristic reasons, in three sub-systems: thematic, interpretative, motivational. Each of these, in turn, is articulated dichotomously into imposed versus intrinsic or «voluntary» relevance. The system thus manages to fathom deeply the different traits of the constitutive of experience.