Toward an Auditing Philosophy (Part3)

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Purpose of Theory .One reason, then, for a serious snd substantial investigation into the possibility and nature of auditing theory  is the hope that it will provide us with solutions, or at least clues to the solutions, of problems which we now find difficult. This is a satisfactory reason in itself, but there is another that is even more important. If auditing is a learned profession, those who practice it should have some curiosity about it. It may be too much to expect every practicing auditor, busy  as he is with the problems of daily practice, to spend a great deal of time philosophizing about what he is doing and why it is socially desirable. But as  a profession, its members must  have sufficient intellectual curiosity to roll back the frontiers of knowledge to come extent. There should be an eagerness to uncover the basic “laws” that govern its knowledge there must be some rhyme and reason to its system; there must be primary and secondary levels of knowledge; there must be relationships and interrrelationships; there must be a reconciliation and rapport with other fields of knowledge. Our own curiosity about our  work should lead us to look into these things, Robinson, in discussing the nature of science , express it beautifully.

While it is generally admitted that the capstone of the edifice of science in its modifacations of the conditions of human life , so as to add to the enrichment of human civilization and “to illumine man’s little day,” nevertheless the real motive which spurs on the trust-bearted scientist is not pratical but a burning curiosity to find out the truth. There is nothing as irritating to a true scientist as obscure and opinionated thinking. He longs to see everything as it actually is.

One of the great thinkers of our times has expressed a similiar thought :

What, then, impels us to devise theory after theory? Why do we devise theorities at all ? The answer to the latter question is simple; Because we enjoy “comprehension”.... There is another more subtle motive.... This is the striving toward unifacation and simplification of the premises of the theory as a whole....”

 

For years auditing has been so busy getting itself established and accepted that it has had little time for such introspection. But as it becomes more and more mature, this excuse becomes less and less valid. There is indeed something incongruous about a profession with no visible support in the form of comprehensive and intergrated structure of theory. We need a philosophy of auditing.