The Accounting Review Vol. 41 No. 1 1966
Explanation Strains in Financial Accounting.
Abstract
The article focuses on the theory of explanation in financial accounting. Observations in this article are a product of screening several articles on the explanation theory, or the theory of valuation, made in the journal "The Accounting review," over the last thirty years. The development of this article begins with that hard core of reliance upon matters of experience which continues to characterize accounting practice. Several species of explanation move in the direction of establishing "fundamental truths" or "first principles." This family of explanations is described in this article as a source explanation. In sharp contrast those types of explanations that base acceptability of propositions on outcomes from the operational employment of one or more propositions as valid. Also, a number of variants of the search for well-springs or foundations of accounting principles have been described. A following section of the article directs attention to a modern emphasis in a segment of accounting writings on a need to orient accounting research toward operational meanings for sentences, and toward prediction qualities for sets of propositions.
- DOI
- 10.2308/tar-4482857
- Volume
- 41
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 21-31
- Language
- en
- Sources
- crossref openalex