Editing Moderation (section)

== History ==

=== Ancient Greece ===
{{main|Golden mean (philosophy)}}
Moderation is also a principle of life. In ancient Greece, the temple of Apollo at [[Delphi]] bore the inscription {{transliteration|grc|Meden Agan}} ({{lang|grc|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 [[history of science and technology|historian]] and [[sociology of science|sociologist of science]] [[Steven Shapin]]:<ref>{{cite book|author-link=Steven Shapin|last=Shapin|first=Steven|year=2010|title=Never Pure: Historical Studies of Science as if It Was Produced by People with Bodies, Situated in Time, Space, Culture, and Society, and Struggling for Credibility and Authority|edition=2nd|publisher=[[Johns Hopkins University Press]]|page=245|isbn=978-0801894213}}</ref>
{{Block quote|From the [[Pre-Socratic philosophy|pre-Socratics]] through the [[Hippocrates|Hippocratic]] and [[Galen|Galenic]] corpus, and in the writings of such [[Stoicism|Stoic]] philosophers as [[Epictetus]] and [[Seneca the Younger|Seneca]], health was seen to flow from observing ''moderation''—in exercise, in study, and in diet.}}

=== Christianity ===
[[File:Venne Merrymaking peasants.jpg|thumb|''Everything in moderation'', illustration of a [[proverb]] by [[Adriaen van de Venne]], 1650s, [[National Museum, Warsaw|National Museum]] in [[Warsaw]]]]
In [[Christianity]], ''moderationism'' is the position that drinking [[alcoholic beverage]]s [[Temperance (virtue)|temperately]] is permissible, though [[drunkenness]] is forbidden (see [[Christianity and alcohol]]).

In the apocryphal [[Book of Wisdom]] moderation is listed among the greatest virtues.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://bible.usccb.org/bible/wisdom/8#7|title=The Book of Wisdom: Chapter 8|website=United States Conference of Catholic Bishops}}</ref>

===Islam and Judaism===
{{See|Moderation in Islam}}
Wasat, also called {{transliteration|ar|wasatiyyah}} ({{langx|ar|وسطية}}) 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.<ref>{{multiref2
|1={{cite book |last1=Kamali |first1=Mohammad Hashim |title=The Middle Path of Moderation in Islam: The Qurʼānic Principle of Wasaṭiyyah |year=2015 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780190226831 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HffzCAAAQBAJ |language=en}}
|2={{cite book |title=Moderation in Islam: In the Contex[t] of Muslim Community in Singapore: a Compilation of Working Papers Presented in the PERGAS Ulama Convention 2003, Held on 13th and 14th September 2003, which Carried the Theme of Moderation in Islam |year=2004 |publisher=PERGAS |isbn=9789810510329 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R__XAAAAMAAJ |language=en}}
|3={{cite book |last1=Hashem |first1=Ahmad Omar |title=Moderation in Islam |year=1999 |publisher=United Printing Publishing and Distributing |pages=177 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EGnltQEACAAJ |language=en}} }}</ref> 
[[Islamic modernism|Moderate Muslims]] use contextual relativism{{jargon inline|date=August 2023}} to interpret the [[Quran]].

The Jewish philosopher [[Maimonides]], who was heavily influenced by Islamic and Aristotelian thought, also set forth moderation as an ideal within Judaism.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Saks|first=Jeffrey|url=https://traditiononline.org/the-extremes-are-more-consistent-but-absurd/|title=The Extremes Are More Consistent But Absurd|journal=Tradition|year=2021|volume=53|number=3}}</ref>

=== 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.<ref>{{cite web|first=Bill|last=Mason|url=http://www.taoism.net/articles/mason/ethics.htm#Moderation|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180720082244/http://www.taoism.net/articles/mason/ethics.htm#Moderation|archive-date=2018-07-20|title=Taoist Ethics|website=www.taoism.net}}</ref> 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|Swedish]] national psyche, more specifically described by the Swedish synonym {{lang|sv|[[Lagom]]}}.