2021/10/02

António Damásio, Descartes' Error - Wikipedia + Reviews

Descartes' Error - Wikipedia

Descartes' Error

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Descartes' Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain
Descartes' Error (Paperback Cover).jpg
The original paperback edition
AuthorAntónio Damásio
LanguageEnglish
Published1994
Pages312
ISBN978-0-399-13894-2

Descartes' Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain is a 1994 book by neuroscientist António Damásio describing the physiology of rational thought and decision, and how the faculties could have evolved through Darwinian natural selection.[1] 

Damásio refers to René Descartes' separation of the mind from the body (the mind/body dualism) as an error because reasoning requires the guidance of emotions and feelings conveyed from the body.[2][3] 

Written for the layperson, Damásio uses the dramatic 1868 railroad accident case of Phineas Gage as a reference for incorporating data from multiple modern clinical cases, enumerating damaging cognitive effects when feelings and reasoning become anatomically decoupled.[3] The book provides an analysis of diverse clinical data contrasting a wide range of emotional changes following frontal lobe damage[4] as well as lower (medulla) and anterior areas of the brain such as the anterior cingulate. Among his experimental evidence and testable hypotheses, Damásio presents the "somatic marker hypothesis", a proposed mechanism by which emotions guide (or bias) behavior and decision-making, and positing that rationality requires emotional input. He argues that René Descartes' "error" was the dualist separation of mind and body, rationality and emotion.

Publication data[edit]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Marg 1995.
  2. ^ Hyyppä 1996.
  3. ^ Jump up to:a b Hughes & Harding 2014.
  4. ^ Panksepp 1998, p. 388.


Bibliography[edit]

Further reading[edit]

J. Birtchnell, The Two of Me: The Rational Outer Me and The Emotional Inner Me (London 2003)

J. Panksepp, Affective Neuroscience (OUP 1998)


Categories:
Cognitive neuroscience
History of neuroscience






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Descartes' Error: Emotion, Reason and the Human Brain

by
António R. Damásio
3.97 · Rating details · 7,991 ratings · 377 reviews
Since Descartes famously proclaimed, "I think, therefore I am," science has often overlooked emotions as the source of a person’s true being. Even modern neuroscience has tended, until recently, to concentrate on the cognitive aspects of brain function, disregarding emotions. This attitude began to change with the publication of Descartes’ Error in 1995. Antonio Damasio—"one of the world’s leading neurologists" (The New York Times)—challenged traditional ideas about the connection between emotions and rationality. In this wondrously engaging book, Damasio takes the reader on a journey of scientific discovery through a series of case studies, demonstrating what many of us have long suspected: emotions are not a luxury, they are essential to rational thinking and to normal social behavior. (less)

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Paperback, 336 pages
Published September 27th 2005 by Penguin Books Ltd (first published 1994)
Original Title
Descartes' Error: Emotion, Reason and the Human Brain
ISBN
014303622X (ISBN13: 9780143036227)
Edition Language
English

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I'm a bit torn about this book. I love reading psychology, but too much research bogs me down. I'm not a psychologist or have professional training in it whatsoever, I just read for the pleasure of knowing how my mind works. Is this book very boring for a layperson to get through? And overflowing with long winding research?

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Justin Yes and no. I would suggest skipping whatever seems boring or overly technical without guilt, and focusing on the amazing case studies and anecdotes. …more
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Feb 27, 2013Morgan Blackledge rated it liked it
OMG Damasio is a hand full.

I think he's trying to kill me.

The book starts out very readable (which is uncharacteristic of Damasio), then (about half way through) the book becomes nearly unreadable (which is typical of Damasio).

I am an educated reader. I teach affective and developmental psychology. I am not a researcher or a specialist but I can say that none of the material in this book is unfamiliar to me. But I'm often lost as to the larger point Damasio is trying to make.

I attribute this to Damasio's prolix writing style. Much of the book feels like he's barfing data onto page after page with out connecting any of it back to the central metaphor of the book.

I find this to be the case with a lot of European intellectuals. They (big generalization, lots of exceptions e.g. Dawkins) don't seem to value economy, clarity or functionality in their writing. The older I get, the more I respect writers who do.

I'll finish this book, I'll read the rest of his books, but dear god what a chore.. (less)
flag108 likes · Like · 10 comments · see review

Paul Mertens Funny how different people can have different experiences with the same book! I think it was one of the most concise books I've ever read; especially ...more
Apr 21, 2015 04:04AM · flag


Jim Nubiola Totally agree with your comment. Nonetheless, is a magnificent book and worth the extra reading effort.
Jan 11, 2016 04:13PM · flag


Morgan Blackledge Hey guys. Thanks for the comments. I just want to clarify a few things.

When I wrote that the book was "challenging" I didn't mean it was hard to understand the concepts.

It's not challenging in that way.

It's challenging in the sense that it's unclearly written.

It unnecessarily challenges the readers patients when it takes 100 pages to make a point less clearly that other authors accomplish in 10.

Other writers make the same points as Demassio in much more direct, more concise ways.

What was the point he was making exactly?

That emotions guide (or bias) behavior and decision-making?

O.k. thanks for the 300 extra pages of poetry.

The point I was trying to make was that many European intellectuals from Dimasio's generation (particularly purveyors of critical theory like Leotard and Baoudrillard) often confused being obtuse for artfulness and depth.

That shit flew in the 90's but in the Information Age, editing is king and parsimony and economy are the new markers of brilliance.

You have to admit.

Sometimes Demassio gets a little wordy.

I love Demassio, and yes this is an important book for its time.

But I think other more recent authors such as Harris (the king of the 100 page razed sharp treatise on ridiculously difficult subjects such as consciousness and free will) have stood on his shoulders and said more with less.

The real point I would like to make is that today's reader may not want to start their exploration of affective neuroscience with this particular book.

It's wonderful but unnecessarily circuitous in its argument, and why (exactly) would one chose that over more contemporary, more clear options.

That is, unless they were trying to look smart on good reads.

I don't know what reading a text diagonally means exactly but I'm pretty sure I read it from left to right just like you.

And I agree that it's worth the extra effort, after all. I read it and finished it and read a bunch of his other shit.

Both of those comments (particularly Paul's) seem like passive aggressive slights engineered to imply that my read was one dimensional, uninformed or lazy. This is simply not the case.

I'm only trying to (a) take a humorous poke at a revered book, and (b) save a potential new reader 10.00, 13 or so hours of valued reading time and (c) normalize the confusion and frustration a lot of people have with this particular book and author.

Don't get me wrong though.

I love the man and his work. (less)
Jan 17, 2016 11:50AM · flag


Oolalaa > The real point I would like to make is that today's reader may not want to start their exploration of affective neuroscience with this particular bo ...more
Aug 21, 2016 04:19PM · flag


Morgan Blackledge Richie Davidson's The Emotional Life of Your Brain is a nice introduction for the regular guy/gal ...more
Mar 19, 2017 07:33PM · flag


Justin Thanks for the The Emotional Life of Your Brain suggestion!
Mar 21, 2017 07:45AM · flag


Sippy I like clear 'economic' and information dense writing too. However, this is not a European problem exclusively. I come across (mainly) American writer ...more
Jul 19, 2017 07:11AM · flag


Tryn I was going to ask for a recommendation- but Oohlala beat me to it! Thanks to you both!
Oct 28, 2017 01:12AM · flag


Black Spring Paul's comment did not seem like a passive aggressive sleight and you saying so made me question the soundness of the rest of your perspective. (less)
Apr 23, 2020 05:11PM · flag


Morgan Blackledge Black: sorry about it.

I just reread Paul and Jim’s comments.

I’m standing by my retort.

It was a little salty.

And it’s 4 years old.

But the point I was making stands.

Paul and Jim’s comments imply that my criticism of the book was due to lack of sophistication (Paul) and lack of effort (Jim).

I called it out.

And I stand by what I said.

I’m sorry you found it off putting.

I’ll try to be nicer and less dickish I the future. (less)
May 24, 2020 06:35PM · flag





Nov 27, 2012Sean rated it it was amazing
I read Descartes' Error as an undergraduate. In grad school, I learned that my advisor's wife (herself a neuroscientist of some renown) had a very poor opinion of Damasio's work. However, by that point, this book had already changed my life.

Damasio provides here a popular account of research in neuroscience that started with the famous case of Phinneas Gage, who, upon having a railroad spike shoved through his head by an explosion, changed from being an upstanding, reliable citizen into a scurrilous bastard with a gambling problem. From this, as well as experimental work with other victims of brain damage, Damasio draws the conclusion that "reason" as we typically think of it is not an abstract process, but a fundamentally embodied one: the brain and the body are in constant communication, and the brain uses feedback from the body to evaluate, prune, and select for further exploration the branches of a decision tree that, for even the most minor of problems ("when should we get together next?") would be otherwise unmanageably large.

My interest in cognitive science and neuroscience were the natural outgrowths of my interest in computers and science fiction. I grew up, as did most people of my generation, with the metaphor of the mind as a computer, executing logical programs in a way that would have made Aristotle - and Descartes - proud. I knew from studies of psychology how apparently irrational the human mind could be, but until I read this book, I always thought the mind was, fundamentally, a separate thing from the body. This book convinced me they are, at least as we implement them, inseparable. (less)
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Dec 22, 2018Manuel Antão rated it liked it
Shelves: 1994
If you're into stuff like this, you can read the full review.



Life Is but a Dream: "Descartes' Error: Emotion, Reason and the Human Brain" by António R. Damásio




(Original Review, 1994-11-17)




Dave Chalmers did a great job of making consciousness popular but his own view was 400 years out of date. Descartes is the real rigorous physicist here - he was after all one of the people who devised physics. What he meant by the soul and God being 'spirit' is that they caused matter to move. Matter for Descartes was just the inert occupancy of a space (extension). So physics consisted of the interaction of spirit and matter. We now call spirit 'force' or 'energy' and Descartes was quite right because thinking is all about electromagnetic fluxes - which in themselves do not occupy space or have mass. His mistake was to think that there had to be one special spirit unit. Leibniz sorted that out in 1714. (less)
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Jan 27, 2009Dwight Cates rated it really liked it
Rene Descartes was a 17th French philosopher and scientist, often called the father of modern philosophy. Descartes argued that 'mind' is an essence that exists independent of 'brain' - this is known as 'Cartesian Dualism.' In 'Descartes' Error', Antonio Damasio argues persuasively that that mind is inextricably linked to brain - when you change the physical brain in specific, measurable ways, you induce specific and measurably changes in mind - personality and behavior.
Damasio illustrates this through numerous examples, drawn from patients who've exerienced brain damage due to trauma or disease, and emerged from the experience with a new personality and mental abilities.
Given the evidence, it's very difficult to argue that the 'mind' or 'soul' is a non-material essence that exists independent of the physical structure of the brain. (less)
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Jan 07, 2009Corey rated it really liked it
Shelves: psychology
I had an unusually ambivalent reaction to this book and alternated between being fascinated and being, well, slightly bored. I'd say that the book is good and the author has some excellent insights, but he gets a little long-winded at times and tends to meander. For the curious, Descarte's "error" was the separation of mind and body, and consequently, an artificial dichotomy between rationality and emotion. Damasio makes an excellent case on neurological grounds that rationality simply doesn't work without emotion. (less)
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Feb 03, 2011Ade Bailey rated it it was amazing
Having read and become involved with his later books, I have gone to the first in a series which explains the difference between emotion and feeling, which makes the mind and body one again, and which profoundly disturbs the comfortable idea of any but conventional separation of 'reason' and the passions.

Damasio is of the 'sufficient but not necessary' strand when it comes to looking at the relationship between brain and mind: you can't be human with the attributes of feelings, emotions, memory and so on without a brain, but all of the attributes relate to things beyond the brain (in particular, the body). I'm a little puzzled as to why he looks forward to a time when 'we' will understand such a thing as aesthetic response. I am not sure, for one, that we are much further than Plato in beginning to understand aesthetics so finding even neural correlates with 'aesthetic states' seems conceptually doomed; more importantly it feeds into the current neuromanic slop that assumes with the intellectual grasp of a five year old that a mood state, a feeling, something like an aesthetic adjective are simple labels to 'things' that exist with the solidity of a stone. As I say, Damasio is aware of the dangers but sometimes, apart from inserted disclaimers, his enthusiasm for his subject tends to imply that while he is very good on the brain he has less of a grasp on the psychology, and of the immense conceptual complexities of enculturation.

For all sorts of reasons though, I'll give this five stars - not least because it's enjoyable and a highly accessible primer to some of the basic anatomy and hypothesised functions of the brain, and, most importantly, its embodiment: we separate brain from body only for conventional convenience. I find that Damasio's work fits (for me) with Lakoff and Johnson (especially relating to the embodied mind), Mark Turner (The Literary Mind), and Chambers, Clark et al (the extended mind).

(less)
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Aug 05, 2008Laura Grabowski rated it it was amazing
Shelves: non-fiction-science
I was captivated and fascinated by this book, start to finish. The book addresses the importance of emotion in cognition, thus pointing out Descartes' error in separating mind from body. In many ways, this book simply affirms things that I have "known" for many years, having spent 20+ years as a dancer/choreographer, but Damasio's perspective as a neuroscientist provides additional and compelling insights. I recommend this book to anyone interested in cognition, psychology, philosophy, arts, or science -- basically, to just about anyone. (less)
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Jul 19, 2010Nathan rated it really liked it
Ignore my bias of working in a body-centered cognitive neuroscience laboratory (whose nascence was likely inspired by researchers such as Demasio), but Demasio's theory resonates as a particularly well-informed "big-level" brain theory. I've read a number of others who attempt to explain away a lot of the mysteries of the brain by big-level theories, but Demasio turns out to build one of the more compelling set of explanations based mostly on evidence from his years of research in dissociation s ...more
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Feb 28, 2020Tina rated it it was ok
Shelves: age-23, stem
Two words: Very Dry.

Book is not suited for layman readers. If you have not taken a university-levelled neurobiology course, you will be lost. You must be familiar with neuroanatomy before diving into this book, it makes for a smoother read (but still very taxing).

Damasio's research a nutshell: emotions are just as equally important as reason in decision making. Patients with neocortical damage in prefrontal cortex of brain are unique cases of "functional beings without any affects" -- they maintain their IQ and all relevant physiological control, except the use of emotions. This results in alienation in all social circumstances. They essentially become social deviants, unable to make any effective (or acceptable) decisions in any situations.

BTW: descartes' OWN philosophy has nothing to do with this book. Rather, Damasio critiqued the schools of Rationality (and ancient Stoics for that matter) -- how it undermined the importance of FEELINGS in all capacities. Reason and logic? Not enough. If Reason and Logic were the ONLY qualities required to make effective decisions, then Damasio's patients would've been the "Ideal Rational Being". But instead these patients were shunned by family and friends, lost their jobs, cannot maintain any effective interpersonal relationships.

So, kids, feel those feels. go nuts. (less)
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Dec 07, 2016Julian rated it did not like it
very bad. the title takes on a literal meaning as this book is good for:

1. a further explication but just largely a complete repetition of Descartes' philosophy under the guise of a 'correction'
2. never pointing out any errors Descartes actually made, and falling in to all of the same traps Descartes did, most of which were pointed out in the 17th century. (less)
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May 24, 2011Joshua Stein rated it really liked it
Shelves: mind, science
Damasio's book is terrific, and works both as an introduction and a good guide for those studying neuroscience and cognitive science. The scientific case studies are easily accessible and thorough (it features, by far, the most thorough assessment of the Phineas Gage case that I've come across) as are the discussions of circuitry. Damasio does use some unqualified terms, but he does a reasonable job at keeping the very technical discussions brief or relatively well qualified by the context of the case studies.

There are a lot of areas that Damasio glosses over, but that is largely because he is attempting to cover a fairly massive scope, in terms of science. The text really is about the science, and it is only towards the end that Damasio really begins to address the philosophical assessment, at all. There are some interesting methodological considerations for those who are approaching this book from the "philosophy of mind" bent, as I am. I strongly recommend paying attention to Damasio's relatively interchangeable use of functions usually seen as properties of mind, and the the circuitry of the brain. Damasio is a brilliant writer, and there is a lot of thought put into that particular assessment of causal relationships.

The assessments of evolutionary psychology are very interesting, though I do have some skepticism with regard to some of Damasio's claims about genetics and the development of the brain, as he is not entirely clear about the role of genetics in the emergence of structures in the brain. There's a sort of weird micro/macrostructure distinction that isn't entirely clear to me, and I wish that portion of the text had been more lucid.

That is really nit-picky, though. I think that, overall, this is one of the best books on the subject that I have come across. I really like Damasio's writing style, though the asides can be a little rough, and feel a bit disjointed. Overall, this is a terrific overview of the science and the repercussions on philosophical theories, both historical and contemporary. Damasio doesn't present this as a screed against Descartes (which would be gratuitous, as writers like Dan Dennett have already beaten that horse well to deal at this point) but instead allows his account of the brain to be taken in its proper philosophical context. Definitely a terrific text. (less)
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Oct 21, 2008Jon Stout rated it really liked it
Recommends it for: fatalists, masters of their destinies
Shelves: philosophy
Antonio Damasio has written a fascinating book, taking as his point of departure a nineteenth century case of a man named Gage who had an iron spike neatly blown through his brain in a mining accident. Gage seemed to retain all of his faculties, amazingly enough, but failed in his later life due to emotional problems. Damasio, a neurologist, uses the case to explore the relationship between emotions and the neurological structure of the brain.

A friend recommended this book to me because of our mutual interest in the philosophical problem of free will, especially as illuminated by the nature of the emotions. Damasio addresses these problems by showing how emotions are related to a particular portion of the brain (ventro-medial cortex), and how emotions function on a basic level as instinctual (non-voluntary) responses to environmental situations. As animals evolve or as human beings grow up, the brain develops these instinctual responses to have a conscious, cognitive component (free, rational thinking) while still using the mechanisms of the primitive instincts.

Damasio reacts to Descartes by criticizing his mind-body dualism, although this is old hat. Seemingly everybody since Descartes has knocked the dualism and still made use of the mind-body distinction.

My favorite part is Damasio's discussion of how one's emotional life plays an important part in rational thinking, by recalling bodily feelings which give a coloration to this line of reasoning or that. My analogy would be that emotions are like the sound box of a guitar, which gives timber and resonance to the vibration of the strings. John Dewey quotes George Santayana as talking about the "hushed reverberations" which give richness to life. These are the emotions, as Damasio describes them neurologically. (less)
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Sep 26, 2021Marcel Santos rated it really liked it · review of another edition
A vast, mysterious, and fascinating theme addressed by probably one of the masters of neuroscience. The book covers the interaction between human rationality and feelings, how they are processed in our brains, how our bodies influence the whole process, and the resulting behaviors. An issue until not so long ago relegated mainly to philosophers (hence the reference to Descartes — cogito ergo sum, I think therefore I am), it has been increasingly elucidated by neuroscience, as detailed by the author.

Damásio’s premise is clear: the cliché which separates reason and emotion is simply wrong. Even though this seems obvious, the fact is that areas of knowledge (such as Economics, with its model of “Rational Man”) or even common sense (“listen to you heart”) have been affirming such separation, either just for methodological purposes or simply ignorance.

The book starts captivating, with an exciting narrative of a famous case of personality shift after an accident in a specific part of a person’s brain, even though all rational and organic functions were kept unaltered.

It is an outstanding read until about a third of the way through as the author refers to similar clinical cases and draws the differences in behavior depending on the part of the brain affected. Then, the author practically abandons anecdotes, and starts using dry, technical language to focus on his abstract theses describing how human brains work in processing different stimuli, the chains of reactions inside the brain and body involved, and the types of behavior produced. There are references to interesting research in the field here and there, though the book turns out to be mainly theoretical.

The book reflects the extreme difficulty in speaking to the greater public about neuroscience without counting on them holding prior knowledge of brain anatomy and human biology. If it weren’t for the general broad theme and thesis of the book and the anecdotal examples, mainly in the beginning and in one or another part in the middle, the book would be solely a technical book.

The general ideas and theses defended are inspiring anyway, making the read worthwhile for those interested in neuroscience. (less)
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Apr 25, 2021Madalena Simões rated it really liked it · review of another edition
Damásio takes us on a journey that explores the reasoning behind what we do, think and feel as humans. He does so by presenting real and interesting case studies at the same time as dilemmas that characterize us as human beings. The way Damásio explains how the mind correlates to our actions and its importance on our physical well being is absolutely riveting and worth reading!
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Nov 02, 2009Jeremy Lent rated it it was amazing
I’ve been reading Damasio “backwards”. One of the first books I read three years ago to try to understand the neuroscientific view of consciousness was Damasio’s The Feeling of What Happens: Body and Emotion in the Making of Consciousness published in 1999. That gave me a solid grounding in Damasio’s view of embodied consciousness, which has become a foundation of my thinking. Later, I came across Damasio’s paper on the somatic marker hypothesis, which powerfully rejects the idea that abstract thinking can take place without a direct connection to the body’s bio-regulatory processes.

With this context, when I finally read Descartes’ Error, (probably Damasio’s most cited book), it had some of the characteristics of a quaint, historical document, making the case for embodied cognition as though it were a radical new idea: “Surprising as it may sound, the mind exists in and for an integrated organism.” I guess that shows the enormous impact Damasio himself (and others such as Edelman, LeDoux, etc.) have had in changing perceptions about consciousness in a mere fifteen years. Thanks to these ground-breaking neuroscientists, “we’ve come a long way, baby.”

I can only agree with the array of distinguished names that cite Descartes’ Error as a key book for understanding human consciousness. Through Damasio, Phineas Gage has become a household name (in certain households!) – the emblematic tragic figure whose prefrontal cortex was severely damaged in 1848, and whose consequent experiences paved the way for the neurological understanding of the prefrontal importance in regulation of emotion, complex decision-making and general executive functioning.

I think there are two fundamental take-aways from Damasio’s classic: (1) the mind is embodied and without this foundation, no approaches to higher cognitive functions or theories of consciousness have much validity, and (2) the prefrontal cortex (pfc) is the crucial mediator between our “innate regulatory circuits” and our self-aware consciousness, with its attributes of reason, willpower, symbolization, abstraction, etc.

Damasio’s work is a significant resource for my research project. However, an initial impression of my thesis of “the tyranny of the pfc” might be that it’s incompatible with Damasio. After all, if the pfc is the key bridge between bodily regulation and self-awareness, how can there be a “tyranny” of the pfc? And what sense does my distinction of conceptual and animate consciousness make if conceptual consciousness is fundamentally connected with animate consciousness? In fact, though, my approach is not only consistent with Damasio, it relies squarely on the work of Damasio and others for its evidence.

My argument is not that an individual’s prefrontal cortex is, by itself, a “tyrant” of our consciousness, but that our Western cultural milieu, imposed on an infant’s perceptions before s/he has even learned to speak, shapes the individual brain in such a way that our sense of identity and values give an inappropriate priority to pfc-mediated attributes (such as planning, reason, abstraction, logic, etc.) at the expense of a balanced self-identity emphasizing such attributes as integrated mind/body experience or full awareness of the present moment.

Here’s a key passage from the book which relates to my notion of a split between animate and conceptual consciousness:

From an evolutionary perspective, the oldest decision-making device pertains to basic biological regulation; the next, to the personal and social realm; and the most recent, to a collection of abstract-symbolic operations under which we can find artistic and scientific reasoning, utilitarian-engineering reasoning, and the developments of language and mathematics. But although ages of evolution and dedicated neural systems may confer some independence to each of these reasoning/decision-making ‘modules,’ I suspect they are all interdependent.

What Damasio describes as the “collection of abstract-symbolic operations” is essentially the same as my idea of “conceptual consciousness.” As he pointedly emphasizes, they are “interdependent.” But Plato, St. Augustine, Descartes and the whole momentum of Western civilization have idealized the conceptual consciousness as “the soul,” as the proof of our very existence, and as the foundation for science and civilization. It’s only when we begin to re-balance our values to give equal import to our bodily existence that we can begin to move towards a ‘democracy of consciousness.’

So thanks, Antonio Damasio, for your ground-breaking classic. Highly recommended for anyone with an interest in gaining a serious understanding of human consciousness. (less)
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Dec 06, 2009Tippy Jackson rated it really liked it
Shelves: science-history, disease, medicine, neurology
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I was just finishing up chapter 8, the somatic-marker hypothesis. I find this idea fascinating! What it made me think of, interestingly enough, was my old Social Science class. My teacher had said that we are born with only a few innate behaviors and everything else is learned. Because we are learning everything we know, it is so deeply ingrained in us, that even when we actively try to be objective and to sort of turn off our cultural bias, it is impossible. He pointed to the book Return to Laughter as an example. He was explaining that this is one of the biggest challenges of anthropology. But after reading this hypothesis, it makes me think of that again. Not only is much of what we know and do culturally learned, but what we learn is even marked in our brain to help us make quick decisions! (Or rather our brain connected specific classes of stimuli with specific classes of somatic state, and our automated somatic-marker device is based on the "education to the standards of rationality of that [our:] culture." It is in effect a marker based on our secondary emotions) This book has really done a compelling job of explaining this hypothesis, both biologically and circumstantially. I appreciate its thoroughness and originality. I picked this book up because I've seen it referenced over and over again in many animal intelligence or animal mind books and I wanted to see what the fuss was about. That being said, I'm coming at this book from a zoologist perspective, not a neurologist perspective, so I haven't really been keeping up with current ideas in the brain science world. So far, reading what I have has made me want to go and look up more current research on this idea. This book was published in '94, but it seems that many more current books are referencing it and now I'm really curious to find out if these ideas have been tested more or what other ideas there are out there.

Also, I love that he opened with Phineas Gage and his use of case studies is very helpful.

Having finished the book now, there are a few other things he brings up which I found interesting. He distinguishes between pain and suffering, which is referenced in animals in translation. Essentially, he explains that suffering has an emotional component. Pain can be simply the physical responses, i.e. neurons firing, hormones/neurotransmitters released. He uses examples from humans who have had a leucotomy. Also, he defines the difference between feelings and emotions. He specifies that acknowledging that there is a physical (and rational) component to feelings/emotions does not mean that prescription drugs should necessarily be used for treating emotions, or performing any treatment that ignores the mind-body relationship, which he also throughly details. He explains that what we refer to as the mind cannot exist without receiving feedback from the body as he ponders the "brain hooked up to electrodes" question. (less)
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Descartes' Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain Paperback – Illustrated, 1 September 2005

by Antonio R Damasio (Author)

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Descartes' Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain+Feeling of What Happens: Body and Emotion in the Making of Consciousness

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This item: Descartes' Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain

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From the Back Cover

"Although I cannot tell for certain what sparked my interest in the neural underpinnings of reason, I do know when I became convinced that the traditional views on the nature of rationality could not be correct". Thus begins a book that takes the reader on a journey of discovery, from the story of Phineas Gage, the famous nineteenth-century case of behavioral change that followed brain damage, to the contemporary recreation of Gage's brain; and from the doubts of a young neurologist to a testable hypothesis concerning the emotions and their fundamental role in rational human behavior. Drawing on his experiences with neurological patients affected by brain damage (his laboratory is recognized worldwide as the foremost center for the study of such patients), Antonio Damasio shows how the absence of emotion and feeling can break down rationality. In the course of explaining how emotions and feelings contribute to reason and to adaptive social behavior, Damasio also offers a novel perspective on what emotions and feelings actually are: a direct sensing of our own body states, a link between the body and its survival-oriented regulations, on the one hand, and consciousness, on the other. Descartes' Error leads us to conclude that human organisms are endowed from the very beginning with a spirited passion for making choices, which the social mind can use to build rational behavior.

About the Author

Antonio Damasio, a neurologist and neuroscientist, is at the University of Southern California, where he directs a new brain research institute dedicated to the study of emotion and creativity. He is also an adjunct professor at the Salk Institute. The recipient of numerous awards (several shared with his wife Hanna Damasio, also a neurologist and neuroscientist), he is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is the author of two other widely acclaimed books, The Feeling of What Happens and Looking for Spinoza.

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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin Books; Illustrated edition (1 September 2005)

Language ‏ : ‎ English

Paperback ‏ : ‎ 336 pages

ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 014303622X

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0143036227

Reading age ‏ : ‎ 18 years and up

Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 12.83 x 1.47 x 19.56 cm

Best Sellers Rank: 173,739 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

165 in Mathematical Logic

659 in Neuroscience (Books)

724 in Philosophy of Consciousness & Thought

Customer Reviews: 4.5 out of 5 stars 323 ratings

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Top review from Australia

Adam Johnson

5.0 out of 5 stars An important foundational book for so much of contemporary thinking

Reviewed in Australia on 7 March 2019

Descartes Error opens with a story that has surely gained a life of its own by now. The story of the most unfortunate Phineas Gage who sustained a horrific injury from a steel tamping rod passing through his brain. The story is compelling because, not only did Gage survive, but he seemed to survive without harm. He could walk, talk, think and all of the things you’d expect.




Except he wasn’t without harm. To steal the punchline, he sustained an injury that left him unable to function properly in society. Damasio hypothesizes, based on similar cases with similar injuries, that Gage lost his ability to connect emotion into reasoning, and ultimately lost his ability to make judgements about preferred future states.




This book is now over 20 years old, and it remains a classic in neuroscience. Its central hypothesis is the “somatic marker” hypothesis, which essentially states that reason is connected to embodied emotion. That decision making isn’t just rational and disembodied, but it is also connected deeply into feelings across the body.




These feelings, or somatic markers, enable certain options to be prioritised over others. Somatic markers are informed by the continual, day to day senses, decisions and consequences. The are, in this sense, emergent. They can be conscious or unconscious, but what they do is facilitate “rational” decision making in the complex world that makes up human society. So much so that, without them (as demonstrated by Damasio’s case studies), people are paralysed in their decision making.




Emotions are vital for rational thought. And that fact that this statement is relatively uncontroversial is sign of how significant this book has become. Its subject matter has led to a vast array of writing around the neuroscience of decision making, the self, and how to potentially overcome these embodied emotions. It has led to the recognition that the body and how it processes emotion is critical for how to enhance the performance of the mind, and similarly how the mind is vitally important for how the body functions.




A fascinating book that provides the baseline for so much of what is out in the marketplace of ideas around decision making and emotion. A book that is at times heavy reading, but is for the most part a ripping yarn that rearranges a number of pieces of the human puzzle to derive a compelling hypothesis for how we think.

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nicholas hargreaves

4.0 out of 5 stars Organismic Feedback Loop Theory

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 8 March 2012

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After having read "The Feeling of What Happens" I thought I'd give this earlier work by the same author a read,as I have recently come across numerous references to it that elevate it to somewhat of a classic in its field.

The first one hundred pages read like a dream and I mistakenly thought that the author had saved his verbose and prolix style for his later works,but then I found I had been lulled into a false sense of security,by which time I was in too deep.The rest of the book took a considerable effort to finish,as to understand a great deal of it requires one to read then re-read a sentence,then deliberate on it until its meaning becomes apparent in your own linguistic terms.This method is taxing to say the least and a vast amount of concentration was required for reading anymore than 10 pages at a time,but due to the interesting nature of the material one remains motivated to proceed further,and by the end of the book you are in no doubt as to the information that has been imparted.

21 people found this helpful

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Marius Francu

5.0 out of 5 stars Glad that I read it

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 7 January 2019

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I am working in IT business. Is time to cross the corridors of the other disciplines and see how these handled/discovered/managed stuff we are struggling with. Is a neuroscience book, don't expect to be an easy read. I decided to read all books written by Antonio Damasio because of risk related work. But soon I discovered that his books and the other of his books are a good trigger, at least for me, for other useful ideas regarding programming, testing, management.

2 people found this helpful

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