The Concept of Fairness.

This article focuses on fairness as an essential element in the development of accounting theory. There was very little additional discussion in the literature of fairness as an essential in accounting theory development until 1960. If fairness is to be of usefulness in accounting, therefore, accountants must shake the word loose from its other meanings, or at least educate the users of financial statements as to its precise meaning when used in conjunction with them. This would be a most difficult task for at least two reasons, (1) accountants would have first to agree upon a precise meaning and (2) the users would have to be convinced that they ought to accept the established meaning with regard to financial presentations. It is the usefulness of the concept as a basis for accounting thought that is being challenged, not the importance of the concept itself. Opinions do vary considerably, and the more complex a subject becomes the more likely that a vague notion about the meaning of a word, however slight, is likely to manifest itself in ambiguity.