The Relevance of Irrelevance On the Explanation of Non-decisions, Non-alternatives, and Non-effective Attitudes

Explaining the non-realization of particular options for action is one of the tasks of any theory of action. But not only the decision processes of an agent are to be considered. The subjective and situational irrelevance of specific courses of action has to be taken into account as an explanatory factor as well. The text discusses theoretical approaches which adopt this perspective and compares them. A particular focus is set on the relevance-theoretical reflections of Alfred Schutz. These are reconstructed with the intention of building an extensive theoretical model of action on them. Advantages of such a model, based on the sociology of knowledge and the theory of relevance, are shown in connection with an explanation of non-decisions, non-alternatives, and non-effective attitudes.