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The perfect summary of this book is already provided by the author In the last two paragraphs on page xvi and the first paragraph on page xvii, which in their pertinent parts say:
"The mind had to be first about the body, or it could not have been. On the basis of the ground reference that the body continuously provides, the mind can then be about many other things, real and imaginary."
And then Dr. Damasio goes on to nail down exactly what he means and what his research shows:
"The idea is anchored in the following statements: (1) The human body and the rest of the body constitute an indissociable organism, integrated by means of mutually interactive biochemical and neural regulatory circuits (including endocrine, immune and autonomic neural components); (2) The organism interacts with the environment as an ensemble: the interaction is neither of the body alone nor of the brain alone; (3) The physiological operations that we call mind are derived from the structural and functional ensemble rather than from the brain alone: mental phenomena can be fully understood only in the context of an organism's interacting in an environment. That the environment is, in part, a product of the organism's activity itself, merely underscores the complexity of interactions we must take into account."
Yes, the supporting experiments are noteworthy, but all, by now are no longer novel. Those who doubt this may also wish to read the author's latest book: "Self comes to mind." (See my Amazon review of it.)
And now for the final issue of this review, the controversy over the title of the book: Was Descartes "cogito ergo sum" indeed in error?Read more ›
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"Neuroloog prof.dr. Antonio R. Damasio (Lissabon, 1944) is vooral bekend vanwege zijn boek Descartes' Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain (1994), waarin hij de biologische basis van de werking van de hersenen onderzoekt. De titel van het boek verwijst naar de beroemde uitspraak van filosoof René Descartes: cogito ergo sum (ik denk, dus ik ben). Descartes geeft hiermee aan dat geest en lichaam gescheiden zijn. Damasio stelt dat onze rationele activiteiten, onze cognitie, gebaseerd zijn op onze emoties en dat onze emoties een lichamelijke status als basis hebben. Erepromotor Philip Spinhoven: `Geen beter moment voor een eredoctoraat voor Damasio dan de start van het komende lustrum met ratio en emotie als thema. Damasio heeft als geen ander fundamenteel onderzoek verricht naar neurale systemen die ten grondslag liggen aan emoties en cognities. Hierbij heeft hij duidelijk gemaakt dat het zonder emoties onmogelijk is om rationeel te zijn. Zijn grote verdienste is verder dat hij deze inzichten op een voortreffelijke wijze heeft weten te vertalen naar een groter publiek met populair-wetenschappelijke boeken als De vergissing van Descartes en Ik voel, dus ik ben.' "
"The doctor, neurologist, professor Antonio R. Damasio (Lisbon 1944) is already well known thanks to his book Descartes' error. Emotion, reason and the human brain (1994), where he researches the biological basis of the working of the brain. The title of the book refers to the famous lecture of the philosopher René Descartes: cogito, ergo sum (I think, so I am). Descartes means with this that mind and body are rigidly separated. Damasio asserts that our rational activities, our cognition, is based on our emotions and that our emotions have a bodily basis.Read more ›
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40 of 47 people found the following review helpful
Damasio attempts nothing less than the quantification of the soul by identifying the likely structures of the brain -- the prefrontal lobes among others -- responsible for logic, reason, emotion and personality. He recounts several stories of patients with prefrontal damage and the peculiar symptoms they display -- then tests his theories with a number of clever experiments carried out in his lab at the University of Iowa. His conclusions are persuasive and well-thought out, and will cause you to re-evaluate much of what you THINK you know about the role of emotion in logical reasoning.
However, the book is flawed in a couple of different directions.
1. The text alternates between well-written, smooth-flowing, extremely readable sections and dense, highly-technical, grammatically-gnarled sentences such as, "In terms of the prefrontal cortices, I am suggesting that somatic markers, which operate on the bioregulatory and social domain aligned with the ventromedial sector, influence the operation of attention and working memory within the dorsolateral sector, the sector on which operations on other domains of knowledge depend [page 198]." Too many sentences of this opacity slowed reading speed to a crawl, and made me wonder about his intended audience.
2. Numerous and frequent references are given to other researchers in the field, but he very rarely elaborates on the directions or results of their research. As a non-academic I am not going to dig out the original articles for myself, and would have preferred Damasio himself provide the summaries.
3. One researcher frequently cited is named "Hanna Damasio" (who coincidentally is also the illustrator of the book) but no mention is made of her relationship to the author.Read more ›
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This item: Descartes' Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain
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