{ localUrl: '../page/chestertons_fence.html', arbitalUrl: 'https://arbital.com/p/chestertons_fence', rawJsonUrl: '../raw/5t6.json', likeableId: '0', likeableType: 'page', myLikeValue: '0', likeCount: '0', dislikeCount: '0', likeScore: '0', individualLikes: [], pageId: 'chestertons_fence', edit: '1', editSummary: '', prevEdit: '0', currentEdit: '1', wasPublished: 'true', type: 'wiki', title: 'Chesterton's fence', clickbait: 'If someone did something, it's generally good to understand their reasons for doing it before undoing it.', textLength: '1296', alias: 'chestertons_fence', externalUrl: '', sortChildrenBy: 'likes', hasVote: 'false', voteType: '', votesAnonymous: 'false', editCreatorId: 'EricBruylant', editCreatedAt: '2016-08-08 12:43:35', pageCreatorId: 'EricBruylant', pageCreatedAt: '2016-08-08 12:43:35', seeDomainId: '0', editDomainId: '116', submitToDomainId: '0', isAutosave: 'false', isSnapshot: 'false', isLiveEdit: 'true', isMinorEdit: 'false', indirectTeacher: 'false', todoCount: '0', isEditorComment: 'false', isApprovedComment: 'true', isResolved: 'false', snapshotText: '', anchorContext: '', anchorText: '', anchorOffset: '0', mergedInto: '', isDeleted: 'false', viewCount: '14', text: '>[...] Chesterton’s Fence. G.K. Chesterton gave the example of a fence in the middle of nowhere. A traveller comes across it, thinks “I can’t think of any reason to have a fence out here, it sure was dumb to build one” and so takes it down. She is then gored by an angry bull who was being kept on the other side of the fence.\n\n>Chesterton’s point is that “I can’t think of any reason to have a fence out here” is the worst reason to remove a fence. Someone had a reason to put a fence up here, and if you can’t even imagine what it was, it probably means there’s something you’re missing about the situation and that you’re meddling in things you don’t understand. None of this precludes the traveller who knows that this was historically a cattle farming area but is now abandoned – ie the traveller who understands what’s going on – from taking down the fence.\n\n>As with fences, so with arguments. If you have no clue how someone could believe something, and so you decide it’s stupid, you are much like Chesterton’s traveler dismissing the fence (and philosophers, like travelers, are at high risk of stumbling across bull.)\n\n*- Scott Alexander, [http://slatestarcodex.com/2013/02/13/youre-probably-wondering-why-ive-called-you-here-today/ SlateStarCodex]*', metaText: '', isTextLoaded: 'true', isSubscribedToDiscussion: 'false', isSubscribedToUser: 'false', isSubscribedAsMaintainer: 'false', discussionSubscriberCount: '1', maintainerCount: '1', userSubscriberCount: '0', lastVisit: '', hasDraft: 'false', votes: [], voteSummary: [ '0', '0', '0', '0', '0', '0', '0', '0', '0', '0' ], muVoteSummary: '0', voteScaling: '0', currentUserVote: '-2', voteCount: '0', lockedVoteType: '', maxEditEver: '0', redLinkCount: '0', lockedBy: '', lockedUntil: '', nextPageId: '', prevPageId: '', usedAsMastery: 'false', proposalEditNum: '0', permissions: { edit: { has: 'false', reason: 'You don't have domain permission to edit this page' }, proposeEdit: { has: 'true', reason: '' }, delete: { has: 'false', reason: 'You don't have domain permission to delete this page' }, comment: { has: 'false', reason: 'You can't comment in this domain because you are not a member' }, proposeComment: { has: 'true', reason: '' } }, summaries: { Summary: '>[...] Chesterton’s Fence. G.K. Chesterton gave the example of a fence in the middle of nowhere. A traveller comes across it, thinks “I can’t think of any reason to have a fence out here, it sure was dumb to build one” and so takes it down. She is then gored by an angry bull who was being kept on the other side of the fence.' }, creatorIds: [ 'EricBruylant' ], childIds: [], parentIds: [], commentIds: [], questionIds: [], tagIds: [ 'needs_examples_meta_tag', 'stub_meta_tag' ], relatedIds: [], markIds: [], explanations: [ { id: '6054', parentId: 'chestertons_fence', childId: 'chestertons_fence', type: 'subject', creatorId: 'EricBruylant', createdAt: '2016-08-08 12:37:36', level: '2', isStrong: 'true', everPublished: 'true' } ], learnMore: [], requirements: [], subjects: [ { id: '6054', parentId: 'chestertons_fence', childId: 'chestertons_fence', type: 'subject', creatorId: 'EricBruylant', createdAt: '2016-08-08 12:37:36', level: '2', isStrong: 'true', everPublished: 'true' } ], lenses: [], lensParentId: '', pathPages: [], learnMoreTaughtMap: {}, learnMoreCoveredMap: {}, learnMoreRequiredMap: {}, editHistory: {}, domainSubmissions: {}, answers: [], answerCount: '0', commentCount: '0', newCommentCount: '0', linkedMarkCount: '0', changeLogs: [ { likeableId: '0', likeableType: 'changeLog', myLikeValue: '0', likeCount: '0', dislikeCount: '0', likeScore: '0', individualLikes: [], id: '18580', pageId: 'chestertons_fence', userId: 'EricBruylant', edit: '0', type: 'newTag', createdAt: '2016-08-08 12:43:37', auxPageId: 'stub_meta_tag', oldSettingsValue: '', newSettingsValue: '' }, { likeableId: '0', likeableType: 'changeLog', myLikeValue: '0', likeCount: '0', dislikeCount: '0', likeScore: '0', individualLikes: [], id: '18581', pageId: 'chestertons_fence', userId: 'EricBruylant', edit: '0', type: 'newTeacher', createdAt: '2016-08-08 12:43:37', auxPageId: 'chestertons_fence', oldSettingsValue: '', newSettingsValue: '' }, { likeableId: '0', likeableType: 'changeLog', myLikeValue: '0', likeCount: '0', dislikeCount: '0', likeScore: '0', individualLikes: [], id: '18582', pageId: 'chestertons_fence', userId: 'EricBruylant', edit: '0', type: 'newSubject', createdAt: '2016-08-08 12:43:37', auxPageId: 'chestertons_fence', oldSettingsValue: '', newSettingsValue: '' }, { likeableId: '0', likeableType: 'changeLog', myLikeValue: '0', likeCount: '0', dislikeCount: '0', likeScore: '0', individualLikes: [], id: '18583', pageId: 'chestertons_fence', userId: 'EricBruylant', edit: '0', type: 'newTag', createdAt: '2016-08-08 12:43:37', auxPageId: 'needs_examples_meta_tag', oldSettingsValue: '', newSettingsValue: '' }, { likeableId: '0', likeableType: 'changeLog', myLikeValue: '0', likeCount: '0', dislikeCount: '0', likeScore: '0', individualLikes: [], id: '18579', pageId: 'chestertons_fence', userId: 'EricBruylant', edit: '1', type: 'newEdit', createdAt: '2016-08-08 12:43:35', auxPageId: '', oldSettingsValue: '', newSettingsValue: '' } ], feedSubmissions: [], searchStrings: {}, hasChildren: 'false', hasParents: 'false', redAliases: {}, improvementTagIds: [], nonMetaTagIds: [], todos: [], slowDownMap: 'null', speedUpMap: 'null', arcPageIds: 'null', contentRequests: {} }