But what if magic doesn't play nice with scientific method?
You make Prediction A. and test it, you discover you were right, from that you predict B. stemming from A. , but it doesn't work.
Perhaps A. and B. are separate and both true, and that trying both at the same time should give you both A and B, but instead gives you C or nothing.
Lets move on, because It can be argued that these predictable results can at least be catalogued, but perhaps magic would not allow for rational deduction, IE. you couldn't have theoretical magic, as you do with physics. Sure we may be able to develop an understanding of sorts, we'd have a catalogue of spells, and randomly over time, with experimentation we would have to assume that new spells appear and are created, but it does not follow that we could do so in a methodical or even understandable manner.
I'm not saying that there might not be some understandable mechanisms which would allow magic as science, I'm arguing that there are ways which science may not be.
Say we have these amazing mental abilities, we consider them 'magic' when in fact they come from some organ in the brain that manipulates quantum effects ( stay with me here). Throughout history we would have been able to catalogue the abilities & techniques, and over time learnt new ones. but the underlaying understanding would inherently be beyond our understanding, until the ability to do science on the quantum level comes along.
I would argue that without understanding of the mechanisms themselves then it cannot be considered science.
