Hello fans! It’s the first of August again, and that means another month full of things named for people! Welcome to the 2017 edition of Eponymy in August. This won’t be a daily posting project like last year, but I’ve assembled a new group of eponyms for putting up this month at a regular clip.
Today’s eponym is Chesterton’s Fence. In the abstract, it’s a rule of thumb for not doing away with things just because you can’t understand why they exist. As Wikipedia describes it, “Chesterton’s fence is the principle that reforms should not be made until the reasoning behind the existing state of affairs is understood.”
As to why it’s called a fence at all, the original passage from Chesterton’s “The Thing” sums it up well:
‘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.”‘
G.K. Chesterton was an early 20th century English writer, known for the Father Brown mysteries as well as a series of Christian apologetics. G.B. Shaw regarded him highly, and he was an influence on Borges, Neil Gaiman, and McLuhan. Chesterton wrote weekly columns for the Daily News and the London Illustrated News for over thirty years, from 1902 until near his death in 1936. He left a written legacy of around 80 books, hundreds of poems and short stories, and 4000 essays.