Is Economics a "science?"

There has been some discussion of whether economics is "really" a science.

On the question of whether economics is a science, I say that a discipline is a "science" to the extent that it's practitioners are acting scientifically. When they accept or reject theories because of ideology, they are being unscientific. When they accept of reject theories because of empirical fact, they are being scientific.

Fields such as medicine, history, sociology, psychology, and economics can be science, or not, depending on how they are practiced. And people in established sciences can certainly act unscientifically. When that happens, it is up to the rest of the field to enforce scientific ways of thought. This is the role of peer review.

As to whether economics is or is not currently being practiced scientifically, this quote says it all:

 "At no point was this rejection of Keynesianism driven by superior empirical performance; it was all about the principle, about refusing to incorporate anything that wasn’t derived from maximization all the way."