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Tradition is Smarter Than You Are
The principle is the same each time: expertise, not tradition, is the key to a flourishing society.
Moshe Koppel • Judaism Straight Up: Why Real Religion Endures
“Tradition” is nothing else than the codified thinking of human beings who lived at times when ignorance was even greater than ours.
Carlo Rovelli • Anaximander: And the Birth of Science
To understand exactly why this is the case, let’s consider Chesterton’s Fence, described by G. K. Chesterton himself as follows:
There exists in such a case a certain institution or law; let us say, for the sake of simplicity, a fence or gate erected across a road. The more modern type of reformer goes gaily up to it and says, “I don’t see the use o... See more
Second-order thinking • Chesterton’s Fence: A Lesson in Second Order Thinking
We can see here why many traditions are robust over decades or centuries, even if they really are arbitrary,