Abstract

GRACIA LOPEZ, Édgar; FRANCO RUIZ, Rafael Antonio  and  AGUDELO VARGAS, María Victoria. A Critique of the Accounting Representation in a Historical Perspective: From the Reflection of a Profound Reality to the Pure Simulacrum. Rev. Cient. Gen. José María Córdova [online]. 2013, vol.11, n.12, pp.79-104. ISSN 1900-6586.

The authors of this paper discuss the accounting truth problem in a historical perspective. The arguments are based on two independent strands of literature -Baudrillard's (1981) orders of simulacra theoretic and Macintosh's (2000) approach that attempts to apply it in the accounting financial theory, in order to study the ontological status of information in earnings reports. In their field of study, they use Baudrillard's four phases of the sign - reflection of a profound reality, the masking and denaturing of a profound reality, the masking of the absence of any profound reality, and the pure simulacrum. All these phases, in turn, correspond to Macintosh's four orders of accounting signs -Profound Reality (Feudalism), Counterfeit (Renaissance), Production (Industrial Revolution), and Simulation (current era). As a starting point, it is considered that ‘truth' is not found but made in contemporary society, thus opening a space for ‘opportunistic accounting', which is replete with instances of truth, lies, humbug and ‘bullshit' for accounting representation from a philosophical point of view and from its social effectiveness. What do the authors hope of their research for protecting the public interest? Besides a collective wish to know what's going on with accounting representation, which epistemological passion, their research is especially helpful in terms of a state-of-the-art needs assessment with respect to a better social integration of the accounting representation on an ontological basis. The authors analyze mainly Macintosh's approach, agreeing with him that the accounting representation must be guided by social objectives, but they depart from the clean surplus theory. They thus argue that a possible solution to so abstruse problem is not confusing accounting measurement and valuation: the foundation of accounting measurement is the material reality (wealth), while accounting valuation must be based on social reality in order to protect public interest.

Keywords : Baudrillard; Macintosh; Simulacrum; Order of simulacra; Hyperreality; Accounting signs; Truth; lies; humbug; and ‘bullshit'; accounting representation; Clean surplus model; Implosion; Contemporary Critical Theory.

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