Cost benefit analysis is often justified as well, but it's better to quantify the magnitudes. The models are very helpful in getting us to think clearly about the problem, but what they 're often very bad at making quantitative predictions about the future. It does it brings discredit on the models when they pretend to know things that they can't know.
John Kay and Mervyn King talk about their book, Radical Uncertainty, with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. This is a wide-ranging discussion based on the book looking at rationality, decision-making under uncertainty, and the economists' view of the world.