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: * A way of life emphasizing perfect amounts of everything, not indulging in too much of one thing. * A moderator may remove unsuitable contributions from the

website A website (also written as a web site) is any web page whose content is identified by a common domain name and is published on at least one web server. Websites are typically dedicated to a particular topic or purpose, such as news, educatio ...

, forum or chat room they represent in accordance with their moderation system. * Ensuring consistency and accuracy in the marking of student assessments. * A "moderator" is one name for the formal position of one who presides over a discussion, helping to ensure that the discussion is balanced among its many voices, for example in the

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a Protestant Christianity, Christian Christian tradition, tradition whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's brother ...

church's use of the term for the heads of its conferences. * A

neutron moderator In nuclear engineering, a neutron moderator is a medium that reduces the speed of fast neutrons, ideally without capturing any, leaving them as thermal neutrons with only minimal (thermal) kinetic energy. These thermal neutrons are immensely ...

is used to slow down

neutron The neutron is a subatomic particle, symbol or , that has no electric charge, and a mass slightly greater than that of a proton. The Discovery of the neutron, neutron was discovered by James Chadwick in 1932, leading to the discovery of nucle ...

s in a

nuclear reactor A nuclear reactor is a device used to initiate and control a Nuclear fission, fission nuclear chain reaction. They are used for Nuclear power, commercial electricity, nuclear marine propulsion, marine propulsion, Weapons-grade plutonium, weapons ...

History

Ancient Greece

Moderation is also a principle of life. In ancient Greece, the temple of Apollo at

Delphi Delphi (; ), in legend previously called Pytho (Πυθώ), was an ancient sacred precinct and the seat of Pythia, the major oracle who was consulted about important decisions throughout the ancient Classical antiquity, classical world. The A ...

bore the inscription ()—"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 A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human species; as well as the ...

and sociologist of science

Steven Shapin Steven Shapin ( ) (born 1943) is an American historian and sociologist of science. He is Professor Emeritus of the History of Science at Harvard University. Early life and education Steven Shapin (born 1943 in New York) was educated at Central ...

Christianity

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion, which states that Jesus in Christianity, Jesus is the Son of God (Christianity), Son of God and Resurrection of Jesus, rose from the dead after his Crucifixion of Jesus, crucifixion, whose ...

, ''moderationism'' is the position that drinking

alcoholic beverage Drinks containing alcohol (drug), alcohol are typically divided into three classes—beers, wines, and Distilled beverage, spirits—with alcohol content typically between 3% and 50%. Drinks with less than 0.5% are sometimes considered Non-al ...

s temperately is permissible, though

drunkenness Alcohol intoxication, commonly described in higher doses as drunkenness or inebriation, and known in overdose as alcohol poisoning, is the behavior and physical effects caused by recent consumption of alcohol. The technical term ''intoxication ...

is forbidden (see

Christianity and alcohol Christian views on alcohol are varied. Throughout the first 1,800 years of History of Christianity, Church history, Christians generally consumed alcoholic beverages as a common part of everyday life and used "the fruit of the vine" in their cent ...

). 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 Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

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 Moses ben Maimon (1138–1204), commonly known as Maimonides (, ) and also referred to by the Hebrew acronym Rambam (), was a Sephardic rabbi and Jewish philosophy, philosopher who became one of the most prolific and influential Torah schola ...

, 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 Taoism or Daoism (, ) is a diverse philosophical and religious tradition indigenous to China, emphasizing harmony with the Tao ( zh, p=dào, w=tao4). With a range of meaning in Chinese philosophy, translations of Tao include 'way', 'road', ...

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 Swedish national psyche, more specifically described by the Swedish synonym .

References

External links

* {{Virtues Concepts in ethics Virtue ethics