Objectivity in accounting

This paper defends the possibility of objectivity in accounting. The views presented are shaped by the antirepresentationalist philosophy of Donald Davidson, and in particular by the conviction that objectivity can and must be founded upon intersubjectivity. A critique of Shapiro’s [Shapiro, B. (1997). Objectivity, relativism and truth in external financial reporting: What’s really at stake in the disputes. Accounting Organizations and Society, 22(2), 165–185; Shapiro, B. (1998). Toward a normative model of rational argumentation for critical accounting discussion. Accounting Organizations and Society, 23(7), 641–664] essentially representationalist analysis of the presuppositions of financial reporting, and an exploration of the metaphor of accounting as a language, are used to elucidate the antirepresentationalist view of accounting advanced in the paper. The elucidation continues through a reconsideration of the question of presuppositions of accounting, and the issue of the politicization of accounting: it is concluded that accounting has no philosophical presuppositions, and that the difference between desirably objective and politically distorted accounts essentially lies in the practices carried out in the name of each.