Golden mean (philosophy)

In ancient Greek philosophy, especially that of Aristotle, the golden mean or golden middle way or Goldilocks Theory is the desirable middle between two extremes, one of excess and the other of deficiency. For example, in the Aristotelian view, courage is a virtue, but if taken to excess would manifest as recklessness, and, in deficiency, cowardice.

To the Greek mentality, it was an attribute of beauty. Both ancients and moderns believed that there is a close association in mathematics between beauty and truth. The Greeks believed there to be three "ingredients" to beauty: symmetry, proportion, and harmony. Beauty was an object of love and something that was to be imitated and reproduced in their lives, architecture, education (paideia), and politics. They judged life by this mentality.

The earliest representation of this idea in culture is probably in the mythological Cretan tale of Daedalus and Icarus. Daedalus, a famous artist of his time, built feathered wings for himself and his son so that they might escape the clutches of King Minos. Daedalus warns his beloved son whom he loved so much to "fly the middle course", between the sea spray and the sun's heat. Icarus did not heed his father; he flew up and up until the sun melted the wax off his wings. For not heeding the middle course, he fell into the sea and drowned.

Another early elaboration is the Doric saying carved on the front of the temple at Delphi: "Nothing in Excess" ("Meden Agan").

The first work on the golden mean is sometimes attributed to Theano, wife of Pythagoras.

...
Wikipedia