Economics has the same ontological status as physics --- reality is not optional --- but the "laws" of economics are derived following different epistemological procedures. This is really nothing more, or less, than what Aristotle taught about methods of analysis being chosen based on appropriateness. Economics is about human action in the face of scarcity. Human purposes and plans permeate the analysis from start to finish. When economics gets derailed --- and folks it often does due to factors such as philosophical fads and fashions, or political expediency in public policy debates --- usually the culprit is one of 3 things: (1) a denial of agent rationality, (2) a denial of scarcity, and (3) a denial of how the price system works to help us cope with scracity by aiding us in the negotion of the trade-offs we all must face. This denial can come in sophisticated form --- e.g., Keynes --- or it can come in an unsophisticated form --- e.g., man on the street. But make no mistake about it, the denial has the same impact on the "laws" of economics as the denial of the "laws" of physics would by a man about to jump off the top of building would on the inevitable impact. All his denials will not mean much when he hits the pavement.
This is from Professor Peter Boettke at the Coordination Problem Blog defending what real economics is all about.
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