Mainstream Consumer Theory: Delay, Acceptance and History Texts

Consumer theory is considered to be the hard core of the neoclassical canon. The present work traces the various historical stages which led to the acceptance of the theory, and attempts to offer some possible explanations for its eventual establishment. The paper starts with a brief historical discussion of the establishment of the canon of the marginalist consumer theory. Subsequently, it discusses the main points of attack by alternative schools of thought. Finally, as part of the assessment, the paper will utilize period and phenomenological histories of thought in appraising the fashionable or non-fashionable way that this theory found a permanent place in the general texts of the history of economics. The discussion might contribute to the understanding of the dominance of mainstream consumer theory and the way that it took its paramount place in modern economics.