Subject, objectives and theories of accounting as a scientific discipline

Abstract

The aim of the article is to identify the subject and objectives of accounting as a scientific discipline at the present stage of its development, and to identify the essence, nature and types of theory in this discipline. These issues have been presented on a background of the views of selected authors and definitions from philosophy of science and methodology of science concerning the understanding of science, attributes of the distinctness of a scientific discipline, and the diversity of approaches to the cognitive status of scien-tific theories. The author uses the method of critical analysis and synthesis of other authors’ opinions and deductive reasoning. Discussion of the nature and status of accounting as a subject of research, undertak-en in Polish literature since the interwar period, is followed by characterization of the main determinants of accounting as a scientific discipline, i.e. its subject, objectives and theories crucial for the identity and cohesion of this social and applied discipline and its distinctness from other disciplines formally belong-ing to field of economic sciences in Poland (economics, finance and management sciences).

Keywords

• rachunkowość
• dyscyplina naukowa
• praktyka
• przedmiot nauki rachunkowości
• teorie rachunkowości
• Accounting