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'''Alfred Marshall''' (1842-1924) was the most influential economic theorist in the English speaking world in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and his "neoclassical" approach to [[microeconomics]] remains influential.
'''Alfred Marshall''' (1842-1924) was the most influential economic theorist in the English speaking world in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and his "neoclassical" approach to [[microeconomics]] remains influential.
[[Image:Marshall.jpg|thumb|250px|Marshall in 1921]]
[[Image:A-Marshall.jpg|thumb|250px|Marshall at age 79]]
==Career==
==Career==
Marshall was born in Clapham, England, July 26, 1842. His father was a bank cashier and a devout Evangelical. He studied mathematics at St. John's College, Cambridge University and quietly became an agnostic. Marshall experienced a mental crisis that led him to abandon physics and switch to philosophy. He began with metaphysics, specifically "the philosophical foundation of knowledge, especially in relation to theology."<ref>Keynes, 1924</ref>. Metaphysics led Marshall to ethics, specifically a [[Henry Sidgwick|Sidgwickian]] version of utilitarianism; ethics, in turn, led him to economics, because economics played an essential role in providing the preconditions for the improvement of the working class. Even as he turned to economics, his ethical views continued to be a dominant force in his thinking.
Marshall was born in Clapham, England, July 26, 1842. His father was a bank cashier and a devout Evangelical. He studied mathematics at St. John's College, Cambridge University and quietly became an agnostic. Marshall experienced a mental crisis that led him to abandon physics and switch to philosophy. He began with metaphysics, specifically "the philosophical foundation of knowledge, especially in relation to theology."<ref>Keynes, 1924</ref>. Metaphysics led Marshall to ethics, specifically a [[Henry Sidgwick|Sidgwickian]] version of utilitarianism; ethics, in turn, led him to economics, because economics played an essential role in providing the preconditions for the improvement of the working class. Even as he turned to economics, his ethical views continued to be a dominant force in his thinking.