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Conventional wisdom is the body of ideas or explanations generally accepted as true by the public or by experts in a field. ==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'':〔''E.g.,'' (Mark Leibovich, "A Scorecard on Conventional Wisdom", ''N.Y. Times'' (March 9, 2008) ).〕
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〔''E.g.,'' (1 Nahum Capen, ''The History of Democracy'' (1874), page 477 ) ("millions of all classes alike are equally interested and protected by the practical judgment and conventional wisdom of ages").〕 or neutral〔''E.g.,'' ("Shallow Theorists", ''American Educational Monthly 383 (Oct. 1866) ) ("What is the result? Just what conventional wisdom assumes it would be.").〕 sense, but more often pejoratively.〔''E.g.,'' (Joseph Warren Beach, ''The Technique of Thomas Hardy'' (1922), page 152 ) ("He has not the colorless monotony of the business man who follows sure ways to success, who has conformed to every rule of conventional wisdom, and made himself as featureless as a potato field, as tame as an extinct volcano."); ("Meditations", ''The Life'' (May 1905), page 224 ) ("in the end he fulfilled the promise of the Lord, and proved that conventional wisdom is short-sighted, narrow, and untrustworthy").〕 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. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「conventional wisdom」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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