Inherited practice embodies accumulated judgement that no individual reasoner can reconstruct, so the burden falls on the reformer.
Burke's 1790 argument. It is the reasoning Chesterton later compressed into the image of the fence, and it places the burden of inquiry on the reformer rather than forbidding reform.
In practice
- A court that follows a rule nobody can now justify from first principles is relying on the judgement of everyone who applied it before.
- A profession's apprenticeship requirement encodes judgement nobody can articulate, which is an argument for asking before removing it rather than for never removing it.
- Standing
- The argument Chesterton's fence later compressed into an image.
- Subject
- Decision-making & Reasoning
- Essay
- Razors, rules and the tools of careful thought