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Irony Of The Golden Age Of Accounting Methodolgy, Tom Mouck

Accounting Historians Journal

Developments in accounting methodology during the 1960s are contrasted with concurrent developments in philosophy of science. The 1960s was a decade characterized by the widespread adoption of the scientific method in accounting methodology. The same decade was characterized by the degeneration of any semblance of consensus among philosophers of science regarding the nature of scientific inquiry. The irony of these incongruous but simultaneous developments is highlighted with the intent of weakening the current atmosphere of uncritical reverence for science and the scientific method in accounting research. A more contemporary (and more open) view of science : the postempiri-cist view : …