“The term ‘field’ carries with it physicalist overtones the reader should guard against. Unfortunately, the use of ‘field theory’ in the social sciences often has been part of a conscious attempt to extend the meaning and structure of physical fields, gravitational or electromagnetic, to include the social realm, with notable lack of success. However, the field conception advocated here grew from social analyses (of international relations) and only after full conceptual, mathematical, and operational elaboration, was convergence with physical field theories sought. Therefore, be warned, constructs like space, time, force, position, and component have psychological and sociological meanings and not the interpretations conceptually given them in physical nature (although, as we shall see, the mathematical interpretation is often similar and there is some conceptual overlap).”

“There are two worlds; the world that we can measure with line and rule, and the world that we feel with our hearts and imagination.”

— Leigh Hunt (1847), Men, Women and Books (Ѻ)