This is a great point. I wish more people with an interest in policy/politics also had an interest of in intellectual history.
A lot of the most important debates of the last 100+ years has been on exactly this debate.
Rationalists like Ayn Rand (sort of), Rosa Luxemburg (red Rosa) and others on one side, and the like of Karl Popper & Hayek on the other.
When people talk about "testability" of a theory to decide if it's a scientific theory... they are borrowing from Popper's criticism of Freudianism, Marxism & the concept of metric based "government science."
A lot of the most important debates of the last 100+ years has been on exactly this debate.
Rationalists like Ayn Rand (sort of), Rosa Luxemburg (red Rosa) and others on one side, and the like of Karl Popper & Hayek on the other.
When people talk about "testability" of a theory to decide if it's a scientific theory... they are borrowing from Popper's criticism of Freudianism, Marxism & the concept of metric based "government science."