A General Theory of Evidence as the Conceptual Foundation in Auditing Theory: Some Comments and Extensions.
ABSTRACT: The objectives of this paper are: (1) to correct several oversights and conceptual deficiencies in Yoshihide Toba's paper, "A General Theory of Evidence as the Conceptual Foundation in Auditing Theory" [1975] and (2) to extend some of Toba's results. The paper's principal argument is that a number of general assertions relate directly to the auditor's opinion and, for each such assertion, three states are possible--the proposition (1) may be established by evidence, (2) may be refuted by evidence or (3) may be indeterminate. This notion forms the basis for a normative definition of necessary and sufficient conditions for each of the auditor's options regarding an opinion on client financial statements. This reasoning then is extended to define the state of each general proposition in terms of the states of more basic underlying elementary propositions. Finally, the paper concludes with a general framework of the audit process consistent with the foregoing analysis.
- DOI
- 10.2308/tar-4481001
- Volume
- 52 (2)
- Pages
- 322-339
- Language
- en
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