On Brian P. West's Professionalism and Accounting Rules.

• Autores: George J. Staubus
• Localización: Abacus: A journal of accounting, finance and business studies, ISSN 0001-3072, Vol. 40, Nº 2, 2004, págs. 139-156
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • This article analyzes the book Professionalism and Accounting Rules written by B. West, in an effort to demonstrate that accounting rules do not yield serviceable financial information and that expertise in interpreting and applying those rules does not substantiate a cognitive authority of the kind expected of a professional occupation. Accounting is an instrument that should guide actions in financial affairs in ways similar to those of instruments in motor vehicles and aircraft. If they fail to convey the measurements that operators need and think they are getting, avoidable crashes are bound to occur. Knowledge is described as justified true belief where truth requires correspondence with observable independent evidence as well as the internal consistency, or coherence, of a set of true statements. West sees generally accepted accounting principles as failing on both counts. These serious defects in our rule book are widely understood, as is the political basis for standards setters' failure to repair them. Another serious weakness in the rule book is the lack of consistency between accounting rules and the function of accounting.