Concept of the day: 'Taking seriously'

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Don't you ever wonder what people mean by what they say? We throw around the term 'taking seriously' a lot:

"Jordan, you should take your job more seriously."
"Don't take it so seriously, Bill! It was just a joke!"
"I just want to let you know, Bradley, that I appreciate how seriously you take me."
"Some bold new conjectures have been presented and we're taking these ideas very seriously."
"Well, you'd better not leave a mess, because I take the cleanliness of my house very seriously!"
"Man, lighten up. You take your life way too seriously."
"Oh, that's just superstition. Don't take it too seriously."
"We appreciate your interest in our church, but you don't seem to take the threat of damnation very seriously."
"Bob, you walked in with a stain on your pants leg. The manager takes that very seriously."

The term 'taking seriously' joins a receptive activity with a certain mode of thought: taking + seriously. What could it mean? It could allude to our consciousness, our receptivity to sense impressions and the manner in which we act on them. 'Serious' could mean either 'truthful' or 'of grave importance.'

In Seventy-Five Aphorisms, Friedrich Nietzsche writes:

"Taking seriously. -- In the great majority, the intellect is a clumsy, gloomy, creaking machine that is difficult to start. They call it 'taking the matter seriously' when the want to work with this machine and want to think well: how onerous they must find thinking well! The lovely beast, man, seems to lose its good spirits every time it thinks well: it becomes 'serious.'"

Let's look at a few things that 'take seriously' could mean:

1. To give earnest or thoughtful consideration ('taking an idea seriously')
2. To give fearful consideration ('taking a threat seriously')
3. To concern oneself with responsibility and work as opposed to play ('taking one's job seriously')
4. To regard as important or employ high standards in relation to ('taking one's hygiene seriously')
5. To trust ('taking false information too seriously')
6. To be critical ('taking a mistake seriously')
7. To respond with anger, hurt, or indignation ('taking a joke seriously')

There could be others. As can be seen, there are both good and bad senses of 'taking seriously,' so the term cannot be given an absolute positive or negative connotation. In other words, taking things seriously is not always bad, nor is it always good.

The expression is an instance of ambiguity in the English language, which we may one day make strides to overcome.

I'm not so sure the entire English language isn't an instance of ambiguity.

Urgh, whenever I try to define it in my head, I end up just thinking "You know.. to take it seriously!"

Maggie's definition of "To Take Seriously":
To consider something important and/or meaningful, and to feel as though it has significant repercussions.

it comes down to FACE and VOCAL TONE

thats it!

Face and Vocal Tone.

if you sound more monotonous, have a darker voice, and a serious face
then your "being serious"

if you smile and laugh your being "silly"

the TOPIC is IRRELEVANT

ive noticed this a lot. i can talk about the most serious subject, and smirk, and people get confused out of their minds.
such monkeys...