What sorts of 'knowledge' and/or 'truths' does economics convey?

I studied this subject for GCSE and I am currently taking it at standard level. This subject has particularly different sorts of knowledge and truths because a lot of it is based on logic and ideas. Much of the theory is propositional knowledge as taking a practical or experiential approach is impossible since theories such as a free market economy are ideals and do not exist.

Also taking an experiential approach to knowledge and learning could cause drastic effects to the world's economy. For example removing government involvement to test whether the theories of a neo-classical aggregate supply diagram were true would cause many deaths as chaos would results when someone tries to take power. Many companies would withdraw all investments in that country in fear of losing money and so the whole country would be put into a recession.

For this reason it can be argued that economics has no actual 'truths.' All the ideas are based on assumptions of people’s reactions. Often it is said that "if you give ten economists a problem and put them in a room, they will come out with 11 different solutions." Anything can be argued from another point of view as knowledge can be applied in different ways. So there are no actual 'truths' in economics. This is seen to be true in the real world. Though often the theories are correct, there are always situations where unexpected things can happen, like in the stock market.

Laurence