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From: Immortalist on 14 Jul 2010 19:16
It is customary to divide sciences into two categories, hard and soft
sciences - examples of hard sciences are physics and astronomy, while
ecology and psychology are often classified as soft sciences.

One group of sciences is also distinguished by strict and rigorous
scientific standards, and close attention to formal standards for
hypothesis formulation and testing. The other sciences take a much
more informal approach, basically taking the view that if it works,
use it.

http://bill.silvert.org/notions/ecology/hardsoft.htm

Economics is the social science that is concerned with the production,
distribution, and consumption of goods and services.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economics

Why do people trust economics as much as physics when it is based upon
such weak research methods comparatively.
From: Osher Doctorow on 14 Jul 2010 19:28
This is a good point. Actually, even Nobel Laureates in Economics
cannot predict tomorrow's economy, much less the stock market. Right
now, Economics is a relatively "primitive" science, something similar
to chemistry just at the time when it couldn't be separated from
alchemy. It is worth studying in the hope of perfecting it some day,
but politicians tend to rely on it because the Public doesn't tend to
understand it, and neither do they usually. Quantitative language in
social/behavioral sciences tends to disguise underlying agendas, just
as untranslated legal language tends to - and guess who tends to make
use of both of them - politicians!

Osher Doctorow

On Jul 14, 4:16 pm, Immortalist <reanimater_2...(a)yahoo.com> wrote:
> It is customary to divide sciences into two categories, hard and soft
> sciences - examples of hard sciences are physics and astronomy, while
> ecology and psychology are often classified as soft sciences.
>
> One group of sciences is also distinguished by strict and rigorous
> scientific standards, and close attention to formal standards for
> hypothesis formulation and testing. The other sciences take a much
> more informal approach, basically taking the view that if it works,
> use it.
>
> http://bill.silvert.org/notions/ecology/hardsoft.htm
>
> Economics is the social science that is concerned with the production,
> distribution, and consumption of goods and services.
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economics
>
> Why do people trust economics as much as physics when it is based upon
> such weak research methods comparatively.

From: George Jefferson on 14 Jul 2010 23:38
For the same reason that we trust entertainers and atheletes over
scientists?


From: Bret Cahill on 14 Jul 2010 23:44
> It is customary to divide sciences into two categories, hard and soft
> sciences - examples of hard sciences are physics and astronomy, while
> ecology and psychology are often classified as soft sciences.
>
> One group of sciences is also distinguished by strict and rigorous
> scientific standards, and close attention to formal standards for
> hypothesis formulation and testing. The other sciences take a much
> more informal approach, basically taking the view that if it works,
> use it.
>
> http://bill.silvert.org/notions/ecology/hardsoft.htm
>
> Economics is the social science that is concerned with the production,
> distribution, and consumption of goods and services.
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economics
>
> Why do people trust economics as much as physics when it is based upon
> such weak research methods comparatively.

Actually many economists go to great lengths to dress up economics as
a hard science but it is trivial to prove that that is just a scam:

www.bretcahill.com

From: Arindam Banerjee on 15 Jul 2010 01:22
On Jul 15, 1:44 pm, Bret Cahill <BretCah...(a)peoplepc.com> wrote:
> > It is customary to divide sciences into two categories, hard and soft
> > sciences - examples of hard sciences are physics and astronomy, while
> > ecology and psychology are often classified as soft sciences.
>
> > One group of sciences is also distinguished by strict and rigorous
> > scientific standards, and close attention to formal standards for
> > hypothesis formulation and testing. The other sciences take a much
> > more informal approach, basically taking the view that if it works,
> > use it.
>
> >http://bill.silvert.org/notions/ecology/hardsoft.htm
>
> > Economics is the social science that is concerned with the production,
> > distribution, and consumption of goods and services.
>
> >http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economics
>
> > Why do people trust economics as much as physics when it is based upon
> > such weak research methods comparatively.
>
> Actually many economists go to great lengths to dress up economics as
> a hard science but it is trivial to prove that that is just a scam:
>
> www.bretcahill.com-

Just that, their models are not good enough. I managed to save my
skin by using my mathematical model to predict call centre response
times to pull out from the stocks to cash, at just about the right
time, Sep 2007. heh-heh, good for me, but no one else seems
interested. Never mind, lots more interesting things to do.
Cheers,
Arindam Banerjee.
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