A serious flaw in Hartry Field’s instrumental account of applied mathematics, namely that Field must overestimate the extent to which many of the structures of our mathematical theories are reflected in the physical world, underlies much of the criticism of this account. After reviewing some of this criticism, I illustrate through an examination of the prospects for extending Field’s account to classical equilibrium statistical mechanics how this flaw will prevent any significant extension of this account beyond field theories. I note (...) in the conclusion that this diagnosis of Field’s program also points the way to modifications that may work. (shrink)

Various techniques have attempted to localize imagery. However, early findings using single cell recordings of human receptive fields during imagery tasks have had little impact. Reports by Marg and his coworkers (1968) found no evidence for imagery in human Area 17, 18, and 19. Single cells from humans suggest later imagery-related activity in hippocampus, amygdala, entorhinal cortex, and parahippocampal gyrus.