An International Meeting of the American Accounting Association American Accounting Association 2006 Annual Meeting August 6–9, 2006 Washington, D.C.

Tony Tinker
Baruch College CUNY And St Andrews University

Aida Sy
University of Bridgeport

Abstract: Adam Smith and Frater Luca Bartolomes Pacioli were both victims of misreading: Smith was not an unabashed booster of market capitalism, and Pacioli wasn't only an architect of bookkeeping. Smith's Moral Philosophy provides an ethical criterion for critically reviewing Pacioli's work and beyond. This paper uses Smith in a quest for "the other" Pacioli', through a close reading of his opus, the SUMMA. We find prescient remarks on morality (ethics), gender, work, labor, professionalism and management. This resurrection of a Social Pacioli prompts the question as to what other lessons might be learned from "other Pacioli's". Insofar as a euro-centricity has hampered such broader inquires, then Smith would judge such silencing a negation of the truth.

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