Nuance: How Much Is Too Much?

Nuance: "sensibility to, awareness of, or ability to express delicate shadings (as of meaning, feeling, or value)" - Merriam-Webster Dictionary https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/nuance

Nuance is all around us. In almost any subject, if you dig down deep enough, you can find it. Sometimes it can be useful, especially when dealing with confusing terms or terms that people aren't all too familiar with. However, there comes a point when there's too much nuance. When nuance is used to pick apart well-established terms that have come to a consensus by the general population, that's when it can start being a nuisance.

For instance, let's take a look at the term "unconscious." What does it mean? Well, let's take a look at the definition of it.

Unconscious: "when a person is unable to respond to people and activities. Doctors often call this a coma or being in a comatose state"- Medline Plus https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/000022.htm

So, basically the term "unconscious" means "not moving."

Now, let's define sleep.

Sleep: "the natural, easily reversible periodic state of many living things that is marked by the absence of wakefulness and by the loss of consciousness of one's surroundings, is accompanied by a typical body posture (such as lying down with the eyes closed), the occurrence of dreaming, and changes in brain activity and physiological functioning, is made up of cycles of non-REM sleep and REM sleep, and is usually considered essential to the restoration and recovery of vital bodily and mental functions" - Merriam-Webster Dictionary https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sleep

Sleep also pretty much means "not moving." Not only that, but it has unconscious in the definition itself.

Now, since we have defined both "unconscious" and "sleep," is it possible to say that "sleep" is a form of unconsciousness?" Technically, yes. However, when most people are talking about sleep and unconscious, there's a general consensus that sleep happens naturally and unconsciousness happens unnaturally. Unconsciousness is not the norm and would happen during a time that one would not expect it. Not only that, but bodily functions are still functioning when one is asleep (i.e. breathing, heartbeat, brain activity, etc.). When someone is unconscious, none of that is happening. A person is basically on the verge of dying if they are unconscious. Also, sleep is easily reversible, while being in an unconscious state is not. So, there's a HUGE difference between the two terms. That's the nuance between the terms, and that's critical. However, if a person plays a bunch of semantics games with words and definitions, everything can be made to mean almost anything one wants it to. If you dig down deep enough, nuance can be used to come up with all sorts of definitions. Now, does it mean those nuanced definitions are wrong? Not necessarily. However, they can offer new perspectives on well-established terms, their definitions, and how we use them.

With that said, there still needs to be terms that are well-established and agreed upon by many, for there needs to be something in place when dealing with language. From there, nuance can be used as a tool to pick apart terms, synonyms to terms, antonyms to terms, etc. Nuance should be used wisely, because it can technically be used to pick apart every term under the sun. When doing that, credulity can become strained and no one would take a person's points seriously if they apply nuance to every word in existence. However, I do think nuance should be applied to terms that are problematic, have a history, or deal with issues in society, because there should be conversations revolving those terms, and nuance can bring about those conversations.

In short, nuance can be both a tool and a nuisance, depending on how it's used. In some cases, it can be a tool that can start conversations, and in other instances, it can be a nuisance that could potentially derail conversations. One needs to use their own judgment when using nuance, and determine for themselves whether or not it should be applied, and how it should be applied, because at the end of the day, there's nuance in almost everything.