IRVING FISHER AND THE MECHANISTIC CHARACTER OF TWENTIETH CENTURY ACCOUNTING THOUGHT

This paper provides an overview of the influence of Newtonian mechanics on the development of neoclassical economic theory and highlights Fisher's role in the popularization of the resulting mechanical conception of economics. The paper also portrays Fisher's The Nature of Capital and Income . a work which has been aptly characterized as the "first economic theory of accounting" . as the first move toward the colonization of accounting by economics. The result of Fisher's influence has been a paradigmatic linkage between the Newtonian world view of science, neoclassical economics, and mainstream academic accounting thought. The picture that emerges from this linkage is then used as a backdrop against which the emerging challenges to economics-based accounting thought are highlighted.