I'm skimming through a book by Carlo M. Cipolla, Between Two Cultures: An Introduction to Economic History. He has nice quote from Keynes on economics: "Keynes rightly held that 'economics is a branch of logic, a way of thinking. The theory of economics does not furnish a body of settled conclusions immediately applicable to policy. It is a method rather than a doctrine, an apparatus of the mind, a technique of thinking.' "