Connecting materialism to accounting in the history of ideas
Date
2014
Authors
Alagiah, R.
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Journal article
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International Journal of Critical Accounting, 2014; 6(5/6):490-500
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Abstract
Current popular culture is connected to the birth of a secular andmaterialistic interpretation of reality, partly brought about by accounting andthe principle of profit maximisation. Materialism, which is the tendency to bemore concerned with material values, through rational experimentation anddiscourse – so people were given to believe – would solve all of thefundamental issues related to human governance and development. Witheducation and legislative action, people’s happiness would be determined,according to materialism, by better health, better food, better education andbetter living conditions. First, this paper applies Foucault’s genealogy, toexplain that materialism is a product of a series of historical events that areclosely related to the need to keep account and the practice of accounting.Second, this paper seeks to show that, accounting and ‘scientific materialism’has been instrumental in paving the course to their and our common failure.Third, the paper proposes a shift away from our impulse for a mere materialexistence leading to what has now become ‘popular culture’, to a new point ofenhancing an ever advancing civilisation.
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Copyright 2014 Inderscience Enterprises