Seriousness
Encyclopedia
Seriousness is an attiude of gravity
, solemnity
, persistence, and earnestness toward something considered to be of importance.
Some notable philosophers and commentators have criticised excessive seriousness, while others have praised it. Seriousness is often contrasted with comedy
, as in the seriocomedy. In the theory of humor, one must have a sense of humor and a sense of seriousness to distinguish what is supposed to be taken literally or not, or of being of important or not. Alternatively, seriousness is contrasted with triviality, which may not be humorous while unimportant or uninteresting. Otherwise, it may also be contrasted with a sense of play
. How children learn a sense of seriousness to form values and differentiate between the serious and that which is not is studied in developmental psychology
and educational psychology
. There is a distinction between the degree of seriousness of various crimes in sentencing under the law
, and also in law enforcement
. There is a positive correlation with the degree of seriousness of a crime and viewer ratings of news coverage. What is or is not considered serious varies widely with different cultures.
Sometimes fields studying degrees of seriousness overlap, such as developmental psychology studies of development of the sense of degrees of seriousness as it relates to transgressions, which has overlap with criminology and the seriousness of crimes.
, cultural critic
, and literary critic, Matthew Arnold
said that the most important criteria used to judge the value of a poem were “high truth” and “high seriousness”.
said that being serious is dull, “we are growing serious, and let me tell you, that's the next step to being dull.” Political satirist P.J. O'Rourke said that “Seriousness is stupidity sent to college.” Epigram
ist, poet, and playwright Oscar Wilde
said that “life is too important to be taken seriously.” In a play on words, novelist Samuel Butler
indicated that the central serious conviction in life is that nothing should be taken with too much seriousness, “the one serious conviction that a man should have is that nothing is to be taken too seriously.”
In some ascetic or puritan
religious sects, an attitude of seriousness is always to be taken, and solemnity
, sobriety
, and puritanism with its hostility to social pleasures and indulgences are the only acceptable attitudes. Perry Miller
, "the master of American intellectual history", wrote of excessive seriousness of the Puritan
s, "simple humanity cries at last for some relief from the interminable high seriousness of the Puritan code."
. He argued that people forget that values are not absolute, but are contingent and subjectively determined. In Sartre’s words, “the spirit of seriousness has two characteristics: it considers values as transcendent
‘'givens’’, independent of human subjectivity, and it transfers the quality of ‘desirable’ from the ontological structure of things to their simple material constitution.”
in humor. In the performing arts
and literature
, the seriocomedy is a genre
which blends seriousness with the comical, drama
with comedy
.
in humor may cross a line after which it is taken seriously, though not intended.
and educational psychology
, seriousness is studied as it relates to how children develop an ability to distinguish levels of seriousness as it relates to transgressions and expenditure of time; for example, a child must learn to distinguish between levels of seriousness in admonitions such as between "don't fidget" and "don't forget to look both ways when crossing the street", which have the same linguistic and normative structure, but different levels of seriousness.
is generally considered to be a crime of "high seriousness", while a misdemeanor
is not.
In criminal law
the degree of seriousness is considered when meting out punishment to fit the crime, and in considering to what extent overcrowded prison facilities will be used. Seriousness of a crime is a major factor in considerations of the allocation of scarce law enforcement
funds.
The meaning and measurement of seriousness is a major concern in public policy
considerations. A quantitative scoring system called the "seriousness score" has been developed for use in allocating law enforcement resources and sentencing.
nurse must evaluate levels of seriousness of medical emergencies and rank them to determine order of care. Seriousness of illness is used to make decisions as to whether to perform invasive procedures such as surgery.
, cultural anthropology
, and criminology
; being of the wrong religious faith may be considered a serious crime in some cultures; smoking marijuana may be a serious crime in some cultures and not others; homosexuality a serious crime in some cultures; and prostitution is a serious crime in some cultures. Perception of seriousness is measured in assessing varying cultural perceptions on health risks.
Grave
A grave is a location where a dead body is buried.Grave may also refer to:*Grave accent, a diacritical mark*Grave , a term used to classify sounds*Grave , a term for "slow and solemn" music*Grave , an old name for the kilogram...
, solemnity
Solemnity
A Solemnity of the Roman Catholic Church is a principal holy day in the liturgical calendar, usually commemorating an event in the life of Jesus, his mother Mary, or other important saints. The observance begins with the vigil on the evening before the actual date of the feast...
, persistence, and earnestness toward something considered to be of importance.
Some notable philosophers and commentators have criticised excessive seriousness, while others have praised it. Seriousness is often contrasted with comedy
Comedy
Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...
, as in the seriocomedy. In the theory of humor, one must have a sense of humor and a sense of seriousness to distinguish what is supposed to be taken literally or not, or of being of important or not. Alternatively, seriousness is contrasted with triviality, which may not be humorous while unimportant or uninteresting. Otherwise, it may also be contrasted with a sense of play
Play (activity)
Play is a term employed in ethology and psychology to describe to a range of voluntary, intrinsically motivated activities normally associated with pleasure and enjoyment...
. How children learn a sense of seriousness to form values and differentiate between the serious and that which is not is studied in developmental psychology
Developmental psychology
Developmental psychology, also known as human development, is the scientific study of systematic psychological changes, emotional changes, and perception changes that occur in human beings over the course of their life span. Originally concerned with infants and children, the field has expanded to...
and educational psychology
Educational psychology
Educational psychology is the study of how humans learn in educational settings, the effectiveness of educational interventions, the psychology of teaching, and the social psychology of schools as organizations. Educational psychology is concerned with how students learn and develop, often focusing...
. There is a distinction between the degree of seriousness of various crimes in sentencing under the law
Law
Law is a system of rules and guidelines which are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior, wherever possible. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus...
, and also in law enforcement
Law enforcement
Law enforcement broadly refers to any system by which some members of society act in an organized manner to promote adherence to the law by discovering and punishing persons who violate the rules and norms governing that society...
. There is a positive correlation with the degree of seriousness of a crime and viewer ratings of news coverage. What is or is not considered serious varies widely with different cultures.
Sometimes fields studying degrees of seriousness overlap, such as developmental psychology studies of development of the sense of degrees of seriousness as it relates to transgressions, which has overlap with criminology and the seriousness of crimes.
Praise for "high seriousness" in scholarship and poetry
Some use "seriousness" as a term of praise for scholarship or in literary review. 19th century poetPoet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
, cultural critic
Cultural critic
A cultural critic is a critic of a given culture, usually as a whole and typically on a radical basis. There is significant overlap with social and cultural theory.-Terminology:...
, and literary critic, Matthew Arnold
Matthew Arnold
Matthew Arnold was a British poet and cultural critic who worked as an inspector of schools. He was the son of Thomas Arnold, the famed headmaster of Rugby School, and brother to both Tom Arnold, literary professor, and William Delafield Arnold, novelist and colonial administrator...
said that the most important criteria used to judge the value of a poem were “high truth” and “high seriousness”.
Philosophical disdain for seriousness
Many have expressed an attitude of disdain toward taking things too seriously, as opposed to viewing things with an attitude of humor. Poet, playwright, and philosopher Joseph AddisonJoseph Addison
Joseph Addison was an English essayist, poet, playwright and politician. He was a man of letters, eldest son of Lancelot Addison...
said that being serious is dull, “we are growing serious, and let me tell you, that's the next step to being dull.” Political satirist P.J. O'Rourke said that “Seriousness is stupidity sent to college.” Epigram
Epigram
An epigram is a brief, interesting, usually memorable and sometimes surprising statement. Derived from the epigramma "inscription" from ἐπιγράφειν epigraphein "to write on inscribe", this literary device has been employed for over two millennia....
ist, poet, and playwright Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s...
said that “life is too important to be taken seriously.” In a play on words, novelist Samuel Butler
Samuel Butler
Samuel Butler may refer to:*Samuel Butler , author of Hudibras*Samuel Butler , classical scholar, schoolmaster at Shrewsbury, Bishop of Lichfield...
indicated that the central serious conviction in life is that nothing should be taken with too much seriousness, “the one serious conviction that a man should have is that nothing is to be taken too seriously.”
In some ascetic or puritan
Puritan
The Puritans were a significant grouping of English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries. Puritanism in this sense was founded by some Marian exiles from the clergy shortly after the accession of Elizabeth I of England in 1558, as an activist movement within the Church of England...
religious sects, an attitude of seriousness is always to be taken, and solemnity
Solemnity
A Solemnity of the Roman Catholic Church is a principal holy day in the liturgical calendar, usually commemorating an event in the life of Jesus, his mother Mary, or other important saints. The observance begins with the vigil on the evening before the actual date of the feast...
, sobriety
Sobriety
Sobriety is the condition of not having any measurable levels, or effects from, alcohol or other drugs that alter ones mood or behaviors. According to WHO "Lexicon of alcohol and drug terms..." sobriety is continued abstinence from alcohol and psychoactive drug use...
, and puritanism with its hostility to social pleasures and indulgences are the only acceptable attitudes. Perry Miller
Perry Miller
Perry G. Miller was an American intellectual historian and Harvard University professor. He was an authority on American Puritanism, and a founder of the field of American Studies. Alfred Kazin referred to him as "the master of American intellectual history"...
, "the master of American intellectual history", wrote of excessive seriousness of the Puritan
Puritan
The Puritans were a significant grouping of English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries. Puritanism in this sense was founded by some Marian exiles from the clergy shortly after the accession of Elizabeth I of England in 1558, as an activist movement within the Church of England...
s, "simple humanity cries at last for some relief from the interminable high seriousness of the Puritan code."
Taking oneself seriously
Many philosophical attitudes express derision for those who take themselves too seriously.The "spirit of seriousness" in existential philosophy
Existentialist philosopher Jean Paul Sartre called the “spirit of seriousness’’ the belief that there is an objective and independent goodness in things for people to discover, and that this belief leads to bad faithBad faith
Bad faith is double mindedness or double heartedness in duplicity, fraud, or deception. It may involve intentional deceit of others, or self deception....
. He argued that people forget that values are not absolute, but are contingent and subjectively determined. In Sartre’s words, “the spirit of seriousness has two characteristics: it considers values as transcendent
Transcendence (religion)
In religion transcendence refers to the aspect of God's nature which is wholly independent of the physical universe. This is contrasted with immanence where God is fully present in the physical world and thus accessible to creatures in various ways...
‘'givens’’, independent of human subjectivity, and it transfers the quality of ‘desirable’ from the ontological structure of things to their simple material constitution.”
Seriousness and comedy
Seriousness is sometimes contrasted with the comicalComedy
Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...
in humor. In the performing arts
Performing arts
The performing arts are those forms art which differ from the plastic arts insofar as the former uses the artist's own body, face, and presence as a medium, and the latter uses materials such as clay, metal or paint which can be molded or transformed to create some physical art object...
and literature
Literature
Literature is the art of written works, and is not bound to published sources...
, the seriocomedy is a genre
Genre
Genre , Greek: genos, γένος) is the term for any category of literature or other forms of art or culture, e.g. music, and in general, any type of discourse, whether written or spoken, audial or visual, based on some set of stylistic criteria. Genres are formed by conventions that change over time...
which blends seriousness with the comical, drama
Drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...
with comedy
Comedy
Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...
.
Detecting presence and absence of seriousness in humor
In the theory of humor, one must have a sense of humor and a sense of seriousness to distinguish what is supposed to be taken literally or not. An even more keen sense is needed when humor is used to make a serious point. Psychologists have studied how humor is intended to be taken as having seriousness, as when court jesters used humor to convey serious information. Conversely, when humor is not intended to be taken seriously, bad tasteTaste (sociology)
Taste as an aesthetic, sociological, economic and anthropological concept refers to a cultural patterns of choice and preference. While taste is often understood as a biological concept, it can also be reasonably studied as a social or cultural phenomenon. Taste is about drawing distinctions...
in humor may cross a line after which it is taken seriously, though not intended.
Detecting degree of seriousness in developmental psychology
In Developmental psychologyDevelopmental psychology
Developmental psychology, also known as human development, is the scientific study of systematic psychological changes, emotional changes, and perception changes that occur in human beings over the course of their life span. Originally concerned with infants and children, the field has expanded to...
and educational psychology
Educational psychology
Educational psychology is the study of how humans learn in educational settings, the effectiveness of educational interventions, the psychology of teaching, and the social psychology of schools as organizations. Educational psychology is concerned with how students learn and develop, often focusing...
, seriousness is studied as it relates to how children develop an ability to distinguish levels of seriousness as it relates to transgressions and expenditure of time; for example, a child must learn to distinguish between levels of seriousness in admonitions such as between "don't fidget" and "don't forget to look both ways when crossing the street", which have the same linguistic and normative structure, but different levels of seriousness.
Measuring degree of seriousness in crime
The degree of seriousness of crimes is an important factor relating to crime. One standard for measurement is the degree to which a crime affects others or society. A felonyFelony
A felony is a serious crime in the common law countries. The term originates from English common law where felonies were originally crimes which involved the confiscation of a convicted person's land and goods; other crimes were called misdemeanors...
is generally considered to be a crime of "high seriousness", while a misdemeanor
Misdemeanor
A misdemeanor is a "lesser" criminal act in many common law legal systems. Misdemeanors are generally punished much less severely than felonies, but theoretically more so than administrative infractions and regulatory offences...
is not.
In criminal law
Criminal law
Criminal law, is the body of law that relates to crime. It might be defined as the body of rules that defines conduct that is not allowed because it is held to threaten, harm or endanger the safety and welfare of people, and that sets out the punishment to be imposed on people who do not obey...
the degree of seriousness is considered when meting out punishment to fit the crime, and in considering to what extent overcrowded prison facilities will be used. Seriousness of a crime is a major factor in considerations of the allocation of scarce law enforcement
Law enforcement
Law enforcement broadly refers to any system by which some members of society act in an organized manner to promote adherence to the law by discovering and punishing persons who violate the rules and norms governing that society...
funds.
The meaning and measurement of seriousness is a major concern in public policy
Public policy
Public policy as government action is generally the principled guide to action taken by the administrative or executive branches of the state with regard to a class of issues in a manner consistent with law and institutional customs. In general, the foundation is the pertinent national and...
considerations. A quantitative scoring system called the "seriousness score" has been developed for use in allocating law enforcement resources and sentencing.
Medical triage
Degrees of seriousness are used in medicine to make decisions about care. Seriousness is related to the effects ofr delaying or not having medical care. In an emergency hospital, the triageTriage
Triage or ) is the process of determining the priority of patients' treatments based on the severity of their condition. This rations patient treatment efficiently when resources are insufficient for all to be treated immediately. The term comes from the French verb trier, meaning to separate,...
nurse must evaluate levels of seriousness of medical emergencies and rank them to determine order of care. Seriousness of illness is used to make decisions as to whether to perform invasive procedures such as surgery.
Measuring crime seriousness in the media
There is a positive correlation between the degree of seriousness of a crime and viewer ratings of news coverage.Cultural variation in measurement and detection
What is considered serious varies widely across cultures and is studied in sociologySociology
Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...
, cultural anthropology
Cultural anthropology
Cultural anthropology is a branch of anthropology focused on the study of cultural variation among humans, collecting data about the impact of global economic and political processes on local cultural realities. Anthropologists use a variety of methods, including participant observation,...
, and criminology
Criminology
Criminology is the scientific study of the nature, extent, causes, and control of criminal behavior in both the individual and in society...
; being of the wrong religious faith may be considered a serious crime in some cultures; smoking marijuana may be a serious crime in some cultures and not others; homosexuality a serious crime in some cultures; and prostitution is a serious crime in some cultures. Perception of seriousness is measured in assessing varying cultural perceptions on health risks.