The principle of relevance in the light of cooperation and trust

The principle of relevance of Sperber and Wilson (1995) underestimates the role of cooperation, and the theory’s inclination toward an individual intentionality is problematic. These are two of the critical observations that this paper introduces and discusses. Through a constant counterpoint with the aforementioned authors, the core arguments of their theory are analyzed in each section of this paper. The discussion will allow us to observe why it is necessary to include the notions of cooperation and collective intention in the explanation of the relevance theory and, at the same time, the concept of trust. Finally, it is also important to stress the distinction between the informative and argumentative conversational modes to achieve a full understanding of relevance.

Published online: 24 May 2013
https://doi.org/10.1075/pc.20.3.03san