The wisdom of ages, or reason?
On the axis: Tradition and transformation · the inherited order
Does the inherited order condense a knowledge no individual reason can match, calling for prudence, or can reason audit institutions and correct the injustice that has crept into them?
This problem is brought out by the thought experiment Chesterton's fence:
You inherit the running of an old estate. Walking the grounds, you come upon a fence cutting straight across a path, fencing nothing in around it: it plainly serves no purpose and gets in the way. Your first impulse is to have it torn down. An old hand stops you: "If you don't see what it's for, I certainly won't let you destroy it. Go and find out why it was put there. When you come back and tell me you've understood, perhaps I'll let you remove it." The story holds for far more than a fence: a law, a custom, an institution whose use escapes us.
G.K. Chesterton, The Thing (1929)
Faced with an inherited rule whose reason you cannot see, what do you do?
Your choice above is recorded in your profile. See my profile →
Anchors: Burke · Hayek · Oakeshott · Condorcet