Moderation is the process or trait of eliminating, lessening, or avoiding extremes. It is used to ensure normality throughout the medium on which it is being conducted. Common uses of moderation include:
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A way of life emphasizing perfect amounts of everything, not indulging in too much of one thing.
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A Forum moderator may remove unsuitable contributions from the website, Internet forum or chat room they represent in accordance with their moderation system.
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Ensuring consistency and accuracy in the marking of student assessments.
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A "moderator" is one name for the formal position of one who chairperson a discussion, helping to ensure that the discussion is balanced among its many voices, for example in the Methodist church's use of the term for the heads of its conferences.
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A neutron moderator is used to slow down in a nuclear reactor.
History
Ancient Greece
Moderation is also a principle of life. In ancient Greece, the temple of Apollo at
Delphi bore the inscription (μηδὲν ἄγαν)—"Nothing in excess". Doing something "in moderation" means not doing it excessively. For instance, someone who moderates their food consumption tries to eat all food groups, but limits their intake of those that may cause deleterious effects to harmless levels.
According to the historian and sociologist of science Steven Shapin:
Christianity
In
Christianity,
moderationism is the position that drinking alcoholic beverages temperately is permissible, though
drunkenness is forbidden (see Christianity and alcohol).
In the apocryphal Book of Wisdom moderation is listed among the greatest virtues.
Islam and Judaism
Wasat, also called () is the Arabic word for
best,
middle,
centered,
balanced. In the
Islamic context, it refers to the "middle way" or "moderation"—a justly balanced way of life, avoiding extremes and experiencing things in moderation.
The Jewish philosopher Maimonides, who was heavily influenced by Islamic and Aristotelian thought, also set forth moderation as an ideal within Judaism.
Taoism
Moderation is considered a key part of one's personal development in Chinese
Taoist philosophy and religion. It is one of the three jewels of Taoist thought. There is nothing that cannot be moderated including one's actions, one's desires, and even one's thoughts. It is believed that by doing so one achieves a more natural state, faces less resistance in life, and recognises one's limits.
Moderation as a guiding principle is complex and can be difficult to not only accept, but also understand and implement. It can also be recursive in that one should moderate how much one moderates (i.e. to not be too worried about moderating everything or not to try too hard to find the perfect middle ground)
Moderation as a principle of Taoist philosophy turns up in all three of its main texts.
Others
Moderation is a characteristic of the
Sweden national psyche, more specifically described by the Swedish synonym
Lagom.
See also
External links
