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Antonio Damasio
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Descartes' Error Paperback – November 1, 1995

by Antonio R. Damasio (Author)
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 715 ratings
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In this wondrously lucid and engaging book, renowned neurologist Antonio Damasio demonstrates what many of us have long suspected: emotions are not a luxury, they are essential to rational thinking.

Descartes' Error takes the reader on an enthralling journey of scientific discovery, starting with the case of Phineas Gage--a construction foreman who in 1848 survived a freak accident in which a 3 1/2 foot iron rod passed through his head--and continuing on to Damasio's experiences with modern-day neurological patients affected by brain damage. Far from interfering with rationality, his research shows us, the absence of emotion and feeling can break down rationality and make wise decision making almost impossible.

Previous page
  1. Print length
    312 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    HarpPeren
  4. Publication date
    November 1, 1995
  5. Dimensions
    5.25 x 1 x 8 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0380726475
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0380726479
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Neurologist Damasio's refutation of the Cartesian idea of the human mind as separate from bodily processes draws on neurochemistry to support his claim that emotions play a central role in human decision making.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"An ambitious and meticulous foray into the nature of being." -- --Boston Globe

"Crucial reading not only for neuroscientists and philosophers but for lay readers too." -- (The The New York Times Book Review

"Crucial reading not only fro neuroscientists and philosophers but for lay readers too." -- --The New York Times Book Review

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ HarpPeren; 1st edition (November 1, 1995)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 312 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0380726475
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0380726479
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 10.4 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.25 x 1 x 8 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 715 ratings

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Antonio Damasio

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4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
715 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Edgar Foster
5.0 out of 5 stars Don't Read Damasio 'Less You're Interested in Cerebating
Reviewed in the United States on January 6, 2005
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What one thinks of Damasio's lovely work, _Descartes' Error_, will largely depend on how interested one is in matters pertaining to the human brain, consciousness and the self. Additionally, one who does not have much of an appetite for technical language will probably not get very fair in this work. Much of Damasio's study is also hypothetical in nature. Therefore, I would not recommend this work to those who have little to no tolerance for abstracta or theoria. But if you are intensely intrigued by the inner workings of the human brain, this book is for you. Damasio initiates his discussion with a fascinating story about Phineas Gage, a man who had a 3 1/2 foot iron rod pass through his head and lived to tell about it. Damasio moves from Gage to other patients who have experienced damage to their frontal lobes and reviews the effect it had on their lives. He argues that reason and emotions are both needed in order for sound judgment or prudence to obtain. Finally, Damasio challenges Cartesian dualism, which posits the anthropological notion of a RES EXTENSA and RES COGITANS. Damasio winds up contending that the "self" which has received so much theoretical attention throughout human history is no doubt neural in nature, unlike Descrates envisioned it. In short, there is no self without a functioning brain in a body. At least, not on this earth. The one drawback that I find with this book is that Damasio does not spend enough time critiquing Cartesian dualism. Nevertheless, the journey that terminates in an analysis of Cartesianism is well worth the ride. Moreover, the author offers an alternative to Descartes' theory that is both compelling and thought-provoking.
26 people found this helpful
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Bernie Gourley
5.0 out of 5 stars How emotions are formed of bodily states and the role they play in making decisions
Reviewed in the United States on May 22, 2018
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I’ve joked that there must be a law requiring any author writing a book on neuroscience for a popular audience to tell the story of Phineas Gage. This book is no exception. Its first couple chapters explore the case of Gage in detail. For those who don’t read much on this subject, Phineas Gage was a foreman for a construction company. By all accounts he was a reliable and solid individual, respected by his employees, trusted by his employer, and beloved by his family. Then one day a four foot tamping rod was blown through his skull – literally, in one side and out the other. One might think that having a chunk of brain skewered out by a steel rod on a gunpowder-fueled ride through the skull would leave one – at best -- a glassy-eyed, drooling, catatonic lump. Surely, a steel rod would wreak more havoc than the narrow needle used in lobotomies? However, what makes Gage’s story fascinating is that the injury resulted in no readily apparent disruption in cognitive function. Gage could still speak fluidly. He retained his memories. He could do math at the same level as before. However, this isn’t to say that the hole through his brain left him unchanged. The even temperament that made him an ideal employee and that endeared him to friends and family was gone. Gage became angry and unreliable.

So what is the relevance of the Gage story to Damasio’s book? Quite a lot, actually. Damasio’s book is about emotion, its influence on decision-making, and how bodily states create emotion. In parts two and three of this three part book, after introducing the reader to the role of the brain in emotion via the cases of those with selective brain damage, Damasio lays out an argument for what he calls the “Somatic Marker Hypothesis” which says that bodily states are what create the sensations that we associate with emotion. The title-referenced error made by Descartes will be apparent to those familiar with Cartesian dualism. Descartes believed there was a dualism between mind and body – i.e. that there was this physical stuff that got us about from place to place, but there were these intangible thoughts and feelings that were matter-independent that were the makings of mind and which were really you (i.e. you think, therefore you are.) Damasio believes that you cannot separate what it feels like to be you from the body and all its hormones, neurotransmitters, vital statistics, neuronal firing, etc.

The book consists of eleven chapters divided into three parts. In the first part, the author lays out not only the case of Gage, but other examples of individuals who had injury or illness in the brain that disrupted emotion and its influence on decision-making. We learn that an unemotional being isn’t like Spock, but instead is paralyzed by indecision. It turns out that it’s emotion that give us a kick, particularly when he have no sound basis on which to make a rational judgement. The second part draws the connection between body and our emotional self, culminating in a description of the Somatic Marker Hypothesis. The final part describes how the Somatic Marker Hypothesis could be tested and where this line of study seems to be going. The book is annotated and has a bibliography as one would expect of a scholarly work – even one written for a popular audience. The book has a few graphics – graphs, charts, and diagrams, but not very many and of a clear and simple nature.

I’d highly recommend this book for anyone interested in the working of the mind. It’s a thought-provoking look at what it means to be an emotional being and challenges our preconceptions about feelings.
105 people found this helpful
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Matthew Miller
4.0 out of 5 stars A look at Descartes' Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain
Reviewed in the United States on September 30, 2013
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After reading Descartes' Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain, I wanted to give an overview of the book, and insight on how to go about reading it. First off, I would suggest this book to anyone who thinks that they are a logical thinker and decision maker that does not let emotion interfere with their decisions. Damasio uses case studies prolifically to support his hypotheses that the mind and body cannot be separated and are in fact an integrated unit.

If you are interested in reading about topics dealing with the mind, and this is the first book that you are choosing to read it will more than likely be a challenging one. Damasio uses numerous of anatomical names for structures and disease names within his book. If you are not familiar with the brain you will be constantly going to Wikipedia or Google to figure out what exactly he is talking about. I would highly suggest starting off with a different book that simply goes over the brain in general before tackling this one. While Descartes' Error can be informative it is much more enlightening and enjoyable if you already know the jargon. That way you will not have to stop reading every other paragraph to go online and look up terms.

The book itself is divided up into three parts. The first part looks into older case studies where people suffered brain injuries and after "recovery" had a change in both their personality and decision making ability. The most notable one is of Phineas Gage who had an iron rod go through his head and damage his frontal cortex. From this injury he had the symptoms listed above for the rest of his life. The second part of the book looks into explanations for why injuries such as the ones listed in the first part effect both decision making and personality. The final part of the book delves into ways to test these explanations and Damasio ends the book by giving an explicit explanation as to what he believes Descartes' Error was in regards to the books topic of the mind and body. For those who do not know who Descartes you will probably know a very famous quote by him, "I think therefore I am". He was a famous philosopher and mathematician from France. It would be beneficial to read the Wikipedia page on him before starting this book as well.

As I have stated before this book can be very dense and labor intensive to read if you have never taken a neuroscience course or read any books on the brain before. Some sections will have to be read over a few times for the information to sink in and really make sense. Damasio includes asides throughout the book on various topics and ideas that he mentions in the main text. These blurbs while helpful are generally where you are going to feel the most confused. The topics that he discusses in these asides, like Phrenology, have whole books written on them, and Damasio only has a few paragraphs on the topic. He tries to get as much information in as possible, and you can feel like your in over your head because the it is just that dense.

All in all for books on the brain I would say that this is a must read. Damasio presents plausible hypotheses and does a good job supporting them. The thing that I like most is both at the beginning and end of the book he makes sure to mention that what he has stated are just hypotheses and that they are not facts. They are conjectures. The field of neurobiology does not have all the answers, so while his hypotheses seem to fit they are not the end all and be all.
54 people found this helpful
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Elijah Logozar
5.0 out of 5 stars skimmed?
Reviewed in the United States on March 6, 2024
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apparently emotion has a point
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Top reviews from other countries

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circ
5.0 out of 5 stars Very good!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 26, 2024
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This book helped me to understand more about impulsive behaviour and the role that certain areas of the brain has on it.
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PepeLuis
5.0 out of 5 stars Buen libro.
Reviewed in Spain on December 29, 2022
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Recomiendo su lectura.
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Raghubir Singh Pirta
5.0 out of 5 stars The thinking stuff of the brain!
Reviewed in India on August 22, 2022
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Our information processing modes--fast and slow--as Daniel Kahneman would have it, are visualised by Antonio Damasio in Descartes' Error as dialogues in the upper and lower compartments of brain profusely looped. Upstairs in the cortices, especially the frontal lobes, images come marked from body or soma; and downstairs, in the brainstem the emotions raise passions. As the situation requires, if there is emergency, the dialogue at downstairs takes action, in other cases the slow and rational decision making occurs upstairs.
It is Somatic Marker Hypothesis--images that constitute thoughts of our mind have origins in body, and in addition emotions enter into this process. It is a challenge to Descartes' "thinking stuff"--located in soul.
Over three decades, this idea of Antonio Damasio has percolated literary imagination. The writer of the Tomb of Sand, quite explicitly endorses it--the brain is storehouse of memories, the real stuff of thoughts is in body and senses.
As a narrative of holistic brain-body interaction, which irresistibly incorporates emotions to reason is also a way to assimilate sociocultural reality. Damasio seems to warn us the way pleasure forms part of economic planning--promoting hedonistic culture.
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Nets
5.0 out of 5 stars Would recommend to any sociologist
Reviewed in Canada on December 12, 2019
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Very insightful and great food for thought
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Y Altamimi
5.0 out of 5 stars an excellent account on the subject of mind and body integration
Reviewed in Australia on April 25, 2023
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Demasio here starts with the classical case of Phineas Gage and how his social and interactive decision making changed after a work related incident. That event changed the man forever. Then Demasio brilliantly takes you on a journey to understand various parts of the brain, their connections and functions without making it difficult for the lay person. He then embarks on explaining disposition al knowledge and images and how they interact. The concept of emotions and feelings takes a serious consideration.
He then puts his hypothesis about ‘self and subjectivity’ to the reader in a beautiful and eloquent way. I am personally blown away by the strength of his reasoning, discussion and the laying out of other thinkers propositions. Finally, he lays out why Descartes error was chosen and what he thinks the error was and what we must do in our current research, daily life and medial practice.
In a nutshell; a master piece of a book on the subjects of mind, awareness, emotions, self and subjectivity.
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