by Antonio Damasio
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The Feeling of What Happens: Body, Emotion and the Making of Consciousness by Antonio R. Damasio |
The Emotional Brain: The Mysterious Underpinnings of Emotional Life by Joseph Ledoux |
by Elkhonon Goldberg
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Spinoza: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions) by Roger Scruton |
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Amazon.co.uk Review
Internationally renowned neuroscientist Antonio Damasio says in Looking for Spinoza that "feelings of pain or pleasure or some quality in between are the bedrock of our minds." Feelings were considered to be beyond the competence of science, even by neuroscientists until very recently. Damasio has been in the vanguard of those who realised that the neurobiology of feelings was no less viable than that of vision or memory.
Damasio has found an historical figure he can identify with in the 17th-century philosopher Bento Spinoza--a Portuguese Jew living in Holland, who, without any of the benefits of neurobiological understanding, nevertheless did come to understand the unification of body and mind and the role of emotions in human survival and culture. As the title suggests, Looking for Spinoza, includes Damasio's personal exploration of what Spinoza achieved and his desire to bring this long forgotten hero of the mind back into view.
Damasio found himself coming face to face with patients with various kinds of localised brain damage. They could not feel particular emotions such as happiness or sadness in the way that they had been able to before the damage occurred. His was forced to conclude that different brain systems controlled different feelings. When patients lost the ability to express a certain emotion, they also lost the ability to experience the corresponding feeling. But the opposite was not true. Patients who had lost the ability to experience certain feelings could still express the corresponding emotion. Damasio had to ask himself whether emotion was born first and feeling second?
Looking for Spinoza is the third in Damasio's beautifully written trilogy (including Descartes' Error and The Feeling of What Happens) that combine accounts of his personal professional explorations of the mind and what it means to be human and how our ideas about humanity have evolved through the philosophical tradition. What always comes across is his compassion and humanity whilst still being a very practical medical scientist trying to do his best for real people with very real problems. Damsio's account of his researches that have built on Spinoza's ideas, using the hard data of modern science is never less than fascinating and thought provoking. It's the sort of book that frequently makes the reader pause and look into space as the implications of what Damasio has written slowly sink in. The "sciency" bits are perfectly managable (aided by appropriate diagrams) for the general reader and there plenty of backup notes for those who want to explore further. --Douglas Palmer
Review
In this thought-provoking and entertaining book Damasio investigates the truth behind feelings and emotions. He distinguishes between emotions (which he believes are the physical manifestations of our bodies' reactions to internal and external stimuli) and feelings (the mental experiences we would normally refer to as emotions). Damasio's conclusion is that feelings are not some mysterious, intangible mental event, but the brain's assessment of the emotional state of the body at any one time. We may, for example, experience a faster heartbeat and raised adrenaline levels when confronted with a mugger in a dark alleyway; we may start to sweat and our mouth may become dry. The brain, constantly 'mapping' the state of our body, will notice these differences from the way we normally are, and produce the mental state of 'fear'. It is Damasio's (quite counter-intuitive) proposal that rather than getting a lump in the throat, crying or laughing because we are upset or happy, we feel happy or sad because we are manifesting these physical symptoms. Spinoza enters the picture because Damasio claims that he managed to predict these scientific discoveries 350 years ago without any knowledge of modern-day anatomy and psychology, let alone of neurobiology. It is a rare scientist who will acknowledge the claims of that most unscientific of sciences, philosophy, and Damasio deserves credit for this alone. In his descriptions of Spinoza's life and times, Damasio demonstrates a feeling for character that is lacking in all but the best novels. This book is clearly aimed at the lay person, and Damasio manages the difficult task of explaining the hugely complex workings of the brain without using impenetrable scientific terminology or (just as bad) treating the reader like a primary-school pupil. Some of the arguments Damasio puts forward (such as that a deficiency of the 'social emotions' - compassion, sympathy, shame - is caused by some impairment of brain function) have huge ramifications for the way we view issues such as crime and punishment, and personal responsibility. Damasio steers well clear of any discussion of these ethical quandaries, although it would have been interesting to know his views on these subjects. However, he repeatedly makes it clear that he is a scientist not a philosopher, and it seems churlish to find fault in what is otherwise a truly excellent book. (Kirkus UK)
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59% buy the item featured on this page: Looking for Spinoza: Joy,Sorrow and the Human Brain |
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25% buy Descartes' Error: Emotion, Reason and the Human Brain £6.72 |
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