Perhaps not so much of a definition--but some observations from  
well-known names about economics: 
 
Marshall:  "I do not assign any universality to economic dogmas.  It is  
not a body of concrete truth" 
 
John Maurice Clark:  "An economist is a man with an irrational passion  
for dispassionate rationality" 
 
G.L.S. Shackle:  "In natural sciences, what is thought is built upon  
what is seen; but in economics, what is seen is built upon what is thought" 
 
Karl Polanyi: "Though human society is naturally conditioned by economic  
factors, the motives of human individuals are only exceptionally  
determined by the needs of material want-satisfaction." 
 
 
 
 
Dr S M Ghazanfar 
College of Business and Economics 
University of Idaho 
Tel: (208) 885 7144 Fax: (208) 885 8939