Descartes' Error: Emotion, Reason and the Human Brain - Hardcover

Damasio, Antonio R.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0330339273 ISBN 13: 9780330339278

Publisher: Picador, 1995

Synopsis

This text takes the form of a conversation between the author and imaginary listener. It journeys from the story of Phineas Gage, the 19th-century case of behavioural change that followed brain damage, to the contemporary recreation of Gage's brain; and from the doubts of young neurologist to a testable hypothesis concerning the emotions and their fundamental role in rational human behaviour. Drawing on his experiences with neurological patients affected by brain damage, 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 behaviour, he also offers a perspective on what emotions and feelings actually are: a direct sensing of our own body states, a link between the body and its survival-orientated regulations, on the one hand, and consciousness, on the other. Damasio concludes that human organisms are endowed from the very beginning with a passion for making choices, which the social mind can use to build rational behaviour. Hearts have reasons that reason should know of and use.

About this title

Review

"A thought-provoking account" (New Scientist)

"Rich in provocative concepts about intelligence, memory, creativity and passion" (Los Angeles Times)

"idiosyncratic and engaging" (The Times)

"Damasio is a profound thinker and an elegant writer...Descartes' Error is a fascinating exploration of the biology of reason and its inseparable dependence on emotion" (Oliver Sacks)

"Crucial reading" (New York Times Book Review)

From the Publisher

Crucial reading - New York Times Book Review

Edition details

• Publisher: Picador
• Publication date: 1995
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0330339273
• ISBN 13: 9780330339278
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 313