Posted: Mar 01, 2010 8:18 am
I agree that economics is not a natural science, but a science nevertheless.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science
Just because the predictions of economics are not as precise as those commonly found in the natural sciences, does not make econs totally useless, or equivalent to a pseudoscience. There are, no doubt some bad economists who bring their ideologies [of the left and right] into their work, but I don't think that invalidates econs as a science in the broader meaning of the word. Nor does it make it a pseudoscience, although I admit that many economists to tend to practice econs as a pseudoscience. To me, Macdoc, your argument is a little like saying that because Micheal Behe practices pseudo-science [at least when he his touting for ID], that evolutionary theory is a pseudo-science.
No, I don;t think that the predicting of the behavior of gas molecules and masses of people making economic decisions are the same thing, but there are some similarities. I certainly don't think that many people act rationally when on the stock market, they tend to follow the herd. Some people make rational decisions and others don't, but the overall effect of heating a gas and heating an economy [or cooling] it, can have some similarities.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science
Just because the predictions of economics are not as precise as those commonly found in the natural sciences, does not make econs totally useless, or equivalent to a pseudoscience. There are, no doubt some bad economists who bring their ideologies [of the left and right] into their work, but I don't think that invalidates econs as a science in the broader meaning of the word. Nor does it make it a pseudoscience, although I admit that many economists to tend to practice econs as a pseudoscience. To me, Macdoc, your argument is a little like saying that because Micheal Behe practices pseudo-science [at least when he his touting for ID], that evolutionary theory is a pseudo-science.
No, I don;t think that the predicting of the behavior of gas molecules and masses of people making economic decisions are the same thing, but there are some similarities. I certainly don't think that many people act rationally when on the stock market, they tend to follow the herd. Some people make rational decisions and others don't, but the overall effect of heating a gas and heating an economy [or cooling] it, can have some similarities.