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This article is from the Conservatism FAQ, by Jim Kalb kalb@aya.yale.edu with numerous contributions by others.

What's the difference between following tradition and refusing to think?

Conservatives do not reject thought but are skeptical of its
autonomy. They believe that tradition guides and corrects thought,
and so brings it closer to truth, which has no special connection
with any private view.

While truth is not altogether out of reach, our access to it is
incomplete and often indirect. It can not be reduced wholly to our
possession, so conservatives are willing to accept it in whatever
form it is available to us. In particular, they recognize the need to
rely on the unarticulated truth implicit in inherited attitudes and
practices. Today this aspect of our connection to truth is
underestimated, and conservatives hope to think better and know more
truly by re-emphasizing it.