Wednesday Wisdom

WHO?

Gilbert Keith Chesterton, commonly known as G.K. Chesterton, was an influential English writer, journalist, philosopher, and literary critic. He was born on May 29, 1874, in Kensington, London, and passed away on June 14, 1936, in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire.

G.K. Chesterton was a prolific English writer, journalist, and philosopher known for his wit, paradoxes, and insightful social commentary. His contemporaries in London included George Bernad Shaw (Pygmalion), Oscar Wilde (Picture of Dorian Gray), and philosopher Betrand Russell (Principia Mathematica). This group was known for their fiery debates on philosophy and religion. He classified himself as orthodox Christian and was opposed to what he called Shaw's radical progressive and reformist views. However, differing in religious views, the two men were great friends and often bantered with quips and witticism. Chesterton was a ponderous man of 6’ 4” and 280 lbs. and famously jestingly remarked to the slim Shaw,” Looking at you, anyone would think a famine had struck England. Shaw, equal of wit, responded “To look at you, anyone would think you caused it”.

What he produced

GK Chesterton notable works included "The Napoleon of Notting Hill," "Orthodoxy," "The Man Who Was Thursday," and the popular "Father Brown" detective stories. He was raised in the Church of England but converted to Catholicism after visiting Rome and becoming enchanted with the Church’s tradition. Chesterton became interested in St Thomas Aquinas and published a biography titled, The dumb Ox: A study of St Thomas Aquinas. He was particularly influenced on how Aquinas was able to bridge faith and reason, and this became one of his enduring principles.

In 1929 he wrote The Thing: Why I am a Catholic, which is a collection of essays that brings the reader on his personal journey to Catholicism while defending his choice against prevailing philosophy. The 20th century saw a rise of the philosophy of Skepticism (Russell, Freud, Nietzsche, Wittenstein) which challenged traditional morals, absolute truth and religious beliefs. Chesterton argues for the importance of authority and tradition in matters of faith and moral values. He suggests that Catholicism's reliance on the authority of the Church, which has been built upon centuries of tradition, provides a stable foundation for beliefs and ethical principles. He believed in persevering the wisdom imbedded in these institutions. He further argues that breaking down of these traditions without knowing their initial purpose as dangerous, this concept and logical argument is known as Chesterton’s Fence.

2025 why do we care?

First principles thinking is a problem-solving approach that involves breaking down complex issues into their most basic, fundamental truths and then reasoning up from the bottom. Elon Musk has credited much of his success in solving complex problems to First principle thinking. A great example is when the price point of electric batteries for Tesla in 2012 were priced 600$ KwH, he quickly realized that this price point was not competitive to combustion engines. Musk found the spot price of some these components like nickel, cobalt and aluminum were trading at a steep discount on the London Mercantile exchange. This allowed him to buy the components and assemble from scratch his batteries at 80$ KwH.

Chesterton's Fence is a tool for reasoning and logic that he used for understanding and preserving traditions and rituals. It can also be used for any decision making. It can be applied before changing or reforming something, the first principle would be a need to understand the initial reason or purpose it originally stood for. Chesterson uses a simple example for a political or zoning law. He writes "In the matter of reforming things, as distinct from deforming them, there is one plain and simple principle; a principle which will probably be called a paradox. 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 of this; let us clear it away.' To which the more intelligent type of reformer will do well to answer: 'If you don't see the use of it, I certainly won't let you clear it away. Go away and think. Then, when you can come back and tell me that you do see the use of it, I may allow you to destroy it.'" What is the reason for the fence and what happens if I tear it down?

When does an institution, law, policy or a belief become obsolete or needs change? Chesterton argues that this fence was put up with planning and for a reason, therefore tearing down has consequences. Waste, corruption and fraud, it’s safe to say everyone is in favor of elimination of this from the government. Elon Musk has been charged with auditing, finding and remedying waste from the federal government through his group named DOGE. Entire groups like USAID have been shuttered, important personnel from the FAA, Health and human services to Energy department overseeing nuclear energy have been dismissed. These moves come off as somewhat whimsical and capricious and not in line with First principles thinking.

It seems reasonable that Chesterton’s Fence provides a simple and important tool in the decision-making process. As Chesterton wrote in his 1929 classic book The Thing: Why I am a Catholic, “The burden of proof is on the reformer to understand the initial principle and what are the consequences of change.”

And now you know...

Thanks, Dad, for the gift of curiosity!

Philosophy is the art of thinking, the building block of progress that shapes critical thinking across economics, ethics, religion, and science.

METAPHYSICS: Literally, the term metaphysics means ‘beyond the physical.’ Typically, this is the branch that most people think of when they picture philosophy. In metaphysics, the goal is to answer the what and how questions in life. Who are we, and what are time and space?

LOGIC: The study of reasoning. Much like metaphysics, understanding logic helps to understand and appreciate how we perceive the rest of our world. More than that, it provides a foundation for which to build and interpret arguments and analyses.

ETHICS: The study of morality, right and wrong, good and evil. Ethics tackles difficult conversations by adding weight to actions and decisions. Politics takes ethics to a larger scale, applying it to a group (or groups) of people. Political philosophers study political governments, laws, justice, authority, rights, liberty, ethics, and much more.

AESTHETICS: What is beautiful? Philosophers try to understand, qualify, and quantify what makes art what it is. Aesthetics also takes a deeper look at the artwork itself, trying to understand the meaning behind it, both art as a whole and art on an individual level. A question an aesthetics philosopher would seek to address is whether or not beauty truly is in the eye of the beholder.

EPISTEMOLOGY: This is the study and understanding of knowledge. The main question is how do we know? We can question the limitations of logic, how comprehension works, and the ability (or perception) to be certain.