Conventional Wisdom - Origin of The Term

Origin of The Term

The term is often credited to the economist John Kenneth Galbraith, who used it in his 1958 book The Affluent Society:

It will be convenient to have a name for the ideas which are esteemed at any time for their acceptability, and it should be a term that emphasizes this predictability. I shall refer to these ideas henceforth as the conventional wisdom.

The term in actuality is much older and dates at least to 1838.

Conventional wisdom was used in a number of other works prior to Galbraith, occasionally in a positive or neutral sense, but more often pejoratively. However, previous authors used it as a synonym for 'commonplace knowledge'. Galbraith specifically prepended 'The' to the phrase to emphasize its uniqueness, and sharpened its meaning to narrow it to those commonplace beliefs that are also acceptable and comfortable to society, thus enhancing their ability to resist facts that might diminish them. He repeatedly referred to it throughout the text of The Affluent Society, invoking it to explain the high degree of resistance in academic economics to new ideas. For these reasons, he is usually credited with the invention & popularization of the phrase in modern usage.