ABSTRACT
The Committee on Concepts and Standards for External Financial Reports of the American Accounting Association (SATTA) has attempted a more general application of Kuhnian analysis to the entire accounting literature. A theory can be regarded as more successful, more useful, if it enables the solution of more problems than its alternatives. To solve more problems is to progress. Progress is temporal. The recent accounting literature suggests considerable efforts are being devoted to the former but it is important to realize that there are non-empirical problems of great importance. True intellectual history is interdisciplinary. It defines contemporary rationality. It seems safe to suggest that Sprague was intending to provide a theoretical analysis of accounting procedures. Canning explains the differences in accounting and economic approaches to income determination. It is important that accounting theorists turn their attentions to examining past theories. Many of the widely adopted accounting theory appear to acknowledge the value of past theories for contemporary theory development.
