Chambers on Accounting: Logic, Law and Ethics

by Chambers,R.J.

• ISBN13: 9780815337867
• ISBN10: 0815337868
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-05-24
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

This volume is dedicated to the life work of Ray Chambers, who was continually seeking ways to stimulate and advance the development of a demonstrably rigorous and serviceable system of accounting. This search for an ideal led Chambers into myriad environments, an aspect of his life exhaustively illustrated in his "Aide Memoire," which forms part of this memorial volume. Accounting functions to provide input into decisions about financial matters, in particular, it identifies the present financial position. But this function has been, to a large extent, eclipsed by rules of convenience, habits and traditions that seriously distort the representation of one's financial position. The papers reproduced in Chambers on Accounting Vols. I-VI aim to rectify this situation. These and Chambers' other works have led to a system of continuously up-to-date, money-equivalent accounting of incontestable relevance to the management of solvency, profitability and financial flexibility. Of other schemes proposed before andduring the years represented here, no such claim could be justified. The first part of Volume VI contains the texts of some 26 papers and addresses presented since 1986, the date of publication of Volumes I-V. They deal with varied aspects of accounting- logical, ethical, psychological, mathematical, economic, regulatory- which are disregarded or given only cursory noticed in the professional and theoretical literature. The second part, the "Aide Memoire," gives in chronological order the places and circumstances that gave rise to the contents of Volumes I-VI and to other publications and unpublished material over some 60 of the most turbulent years in the history of accounting. The contents of Volumes I-V are grouped by material content. The references to volume-location given in this volume ease access to any item reproduced.

Table of Contents

Part 1: Selected papers
``Wanted: Foundations of Accounting Measurement'': (1) submitted to The Accounting Review, 1972, publication declined; (2) Abacus, March 1998, 36-47	1	(12)
``Accounting Education for the 21st Century'': (1) Proceedings of South-East Asian University Accounting Teachers' Conference, Singapore, April 1986; (2) Abacus, September 1987, 97-106	13	(10)
``Accounting as Financial Instrumentation'': (1) presented in Waseda University, Tokyo, October 1987; (2) Economia Aziendale, XI, 3 December 1992, 439-451	23	(13)
``Metrical and Empirical Laws in Accounting'': (1) earlier version ``Mathematical and Empirical Laws in Accounting'' presented in Hokkaigakuen University, Sapporo, October 1987; (2) reprinted in Journal of Economics, Hokkaigakuen University, October 1987, 1-16; (3) this version in Accounting Horizons, December 1991, 1-15	36	(15)
``Time in Accounting'': (1) presented at the Fifth World Congress of Accounting Historians, Sydney, August 1988; (2) Abacus, March 1989, 7-21	51	(15)
``A New Era in Corporate Reporting?'': (1) review article in The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland Research Committee, Making Corporate Reports Valuable, 1988; (2) The Accountant's Magazine, February 1989, 26-28	66	(3)
With P W Wolnizer, ``A True and Fair View of Financial Position'': (1) earlier (1989) version in Economia Aziendale, August 1991; (2) presented to the Congress of the European Accounting Association, Budapest, April 1990; (3) this revision in Company and Securities Law Journal, December 1990, 353-368	69	(16)
With P W Wolnizer, ``A True and Fair View of Position and Results: The Historical Background'': (1) presented to the Congress of the European Accounting Association, Budapest, April 1990; (2) this revision in Accounting, Business and Financial History, April 1991, 197-213; (3) reproduced in G G Kaufman (ed), Research in Financial Services Private and Public Policy, vol. 5, 1993, Greenwich, Connecticut, JAI Press, 1-17	85	(17)
``Novocastrian graduation'': occasional address on admission to the degree of Doctor of Science honoris causa at the University of Newcastle, 11 May 1990; presiding, the Chancellor, the Honourable Justice Elizabeth Evatt, A.O.	102	(3)
``Positive Accounting Theory and the P A Cult'': (1) presented at Australian National University, May 1990; (2) presented at University of New South Wales, August 1990; (3) presented at Macquarie University, April 1991; (4) Abacus, March 1993, 1-26	105	(26)
``Accounting and Corporate Morality - The Ethical Cringe'': (1) address to Sydney University Pacioli Society, May 1991; (2) published as ``The Ethical Cringe'', The Australian Accountant, July 1991; (3) this revision in Australian Journal of Corporate Law, vol. 1 no. 1, September 1991, 9-21	131	(13)
``Carpe diem!'': response to Professors Robert Baxt and Murray Wells announcing the 1991 Outstanding Accounting Educator Award of American Accounting Association and induction into the Accounting Hall of Fame, Ohio State University; at the Great Hall, University of Sydney, 27 July 1991; presiding, the Chancellor, Dame Leonie Kramer A.C., and President of the Accounting and Finance Foundation within the University of Sydney, Mr John Randall	144	(3)
``Let us now praise famous men... (Ecclesiasticus xliv, 1)'': response on induction (in Nashville, Tennessee) to the Accounting Hall of Fame, Ohio State University, 13 August 1991; presiding, William Bentz; presenters, Murray Wells, Dan Jensen	147	(2)
``An Educational Scandal'': address before University of Newcastle Town and Gown, 13 November 1991	149	(3)
``An Academic Apprenticeship'': (1) Accounting History, vol. 3, no. 1, 1991, 16-24; (2) here reproduced from G D Carnegie & P W Wolnizer (eds), Accounting History newsletter 1980-1989 and Accounting History, 1989-1994, A tribute to Robert William Gibson, New York, Garland, 1996, 101-111	152	(11)
``The Poverty of Accounting Discourse'': (1) Syme-Monash discussion paper series 2/92, presented at Monash University, 25 August 1992; (2) Abacus, October 1999, 241-251	163	(11)
``Floccinaucinihilipilification in Accounting'': (1) staff seminar presented at Monash University, 27 August 1992; (2) published as ``Floccinaucinihilipilification in Accounting - Does it Matter?'', Australian Accounting Review, March 1996, 16-22	174	(7)
``Historical Cost - Tale of a False Creed'': (1) presented in the absence of the author by M J R Gaffikin before the annual conference of the European Accounting Association, Turku, Finland, April 1993; (2) Accounting Horizons, March 1994, 76-89	181	(14)
``Knowledge and Accountability'': occasional address on admission to the degree of Doctor of Science honoris causa at the University of Wollongong, 13 May 1993; presiding, the Chancellor, the Honourable Robert M Hope, A.C., LL.D., Q.C.	195	(3)
``Research! - But What of Practice?'': opening address before the annual conference of the Accounting Association of Australia and New Zealand, Wollongong, 4 July 1994	198	(4)
``Ends, Ways, Means and Conceptual Frameworks'': (1) Syme-Monash research seminar presented at Monash University, 2 August 1994; (2) Abacus, September 1996, 119-132	202	(14)
``Price Variation and Inflation Accounting Research'': in S Jones, C Romano & J Ratnatunga (eds), Accounting Theory, A Contemporary Review, Sydney, Harcourt Brace, 1995, 75-96	216	(24)
``The Case for Simplicity in Accounting'': (1) Syme-Monash research seminar presented at Monash University, 28 March 1995; (2) Abacus, June 1999, 121-137	240	(17)
``In Quest of a Framework'': Asia-Pacific Journal of Accounting, December 1995, 2-12	257	(11)
``Irving Fisher (1867-1947)'': in M Chatfield & R Vangermeersch (eds), A History of Accounting: An International Encyclopedia, New York, Garland, 1996, 254-255	268	(1)
``Sterling as Scholar'': in T A Lee & P W Wolnizer (eds), The Quest for a Science of Accounting, An Anthology of the Research of Robert R Sterling, New York, Garland, 1997, xvii-xxxi	269