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Accounting as Applied Ethics: Teaching a Discipline

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Abstract

In this article it is argued that there are notable parallels between all of the different strands within ethics on the one hand, and accountancy on the other that, in teaching, can be drawn upon to enhance students’ understanding of the latter. Accountancy, part of economics, draws on utilitarian ethics, but not solely so. Accounting, in addition, draws on deontological and communitarian strands in ethics. The article suggests that the teaching of accounting – especially to non-economists – would benefit substantially from highlighting and developing these parallels.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. RSM Erasmus University, PO Box 1738, NL-3000, DR Rotterdam, The Netherlands

    Wilfred Dolfsma

  2. Netherlands Institute for Advanced Studies, The Netherlands

    Wilfred Dolfsma

  3. University of Aberdeen Business School, UK

    Wilfred Dolfsma

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  1. Wilfred Dolfsma
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Correspondence to Wilfred Dolfsma.

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Wilfred Dolfsma is both an economist and a philosopher, and holds a Ph.D. in the former from Erasmus University. He is attached to the Erasmus University, Rotterdam at the Business School, as well as MERIT, University Maastricht. He is currently fellow at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study. He is corresponding editor of the Review of Social Economy (Routledge). He has co-edited Globalization Social Capital and Inequality (2003, with Charlie Dannreuther), Understanding the Knowledge Economy (2006, with Luc Soete) and Ethics and the Market (2006, with Jane Clary and Deborah M. Figart).

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Dolfsma, W. Accounting as Applied Ethics: Teaching a Discipline. J Bus Ethics 63, 209–215 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-005-4662-7

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