"To follow imperfect, uncertain, or corrupted traditions, in order to avoid erring in our own judgment, is but to exchange one danger for another"
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Whately is diagnosing a particularly respectable form of cowardice: outsourcing your thinking to tradition because personal judgment feels risky. The line’s snap comes from its inversion of a common moral reflex. Tradition is usually marketed as a safety rail, a way to avoid the embarrassing freedom of getting it wrong. Whately flips that comfort into a grim bargain. If the tradition is “imperfect, uncertain, or corrupted,” then obedience isn’t humility; it’s negligence with better branding.
The phrasing does a lot of quiet work. “To follow” suggests momentum and habit, not active assent. The pile-up of adjectives - imperfect, uncertain, corrupted - widens the net from harmless flaws to outright moral rot, implying that traditions can degrade without losing their authority’s sheen. Then comes the psychological tell: “in order to avoid erring in our own judgment.” He’s naming the motive as fear, not wisdom. The punch lands in the final clause, which refuses the fantasy of a risk-free option: you’re not choosing between danger and safety, only between dangers.
Context matters. Whately, an Anglican thinker writing in a Britain wrestling with reform, Catholic emancipation, and the authority of church and institution, is speaking to a culture that often treated inherited practice as self-justifying. His subtext is not anarchic iconoclasm; it’s accountability. If you hide behind precedent, you still own the consequences. The moral burden doesn’t vanish when you cite tradition - it just moves to a different filing cabinet.
The phrasing does a lot of quiet work. “To follow” suggests momentum and habit, not active assent. The pile-up of adjectives - imperfect, uncertain, corrupted - widens the net from harmless flaws to outright moral rot, implying that traditions can degrade without losing their authority’s sheen. Then comes the psychological tell: “in order to avoid erring in our own judgment.” He’s naming the motive as fear, not wisdom. The punch lands in the final clause, which refuses the fantasy of a risk-free option: you’re not choosing between danger and safety, only between dangers.
Context matters. Whately, an Anglican thinker writing in a Britain wrestling with reform, Catholic emancipation, and the authority of church and institution, is speaking to a culture that often treated inherited practice as self-justifying. His subtext is not anarchic iconoclasm; it’s accountability. If you hide behind precedent, you still own the consequences. The moral burden doesn’t vanish when you cite tradition - it just moves to a different filing cabinet.
Quote Details
| Topic | Reason & Logic |
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