G.K. Chesterton

Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936) was an English writer — journalist, novelist, poet, critic, theologian — known for wit, paradox, and prolific output. He wrote around 80 books, hundreds of poems, and thousands of essays.

His lasting contribution to thinking may be a single passage from The Thing (1929), now called Chesterton’s Fence: if you come upon a fence across a road and can’t see its purpose, don’t tear it down until you understand why it was built. The person who doesn’t see the use might be exactly the wrong person to judge its value.

The principle extends beyond fences to traditions, institutions, and practices whose rationale has been forgotten. They may encode solutions to problems we no longer remember having. Reformers who can’t imagine why something exists are dangerous.

Related: [[chestertons-fence]], [[tacit-knowledge]], [[selection]], [[high-modernism]]