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

284 Pages·2016·1.73 MB·English

by  Anthony Damasio

PENGUIN BOOKS
DESCARTES’ ERROR
Antonio Damasio is David Dornsife Professor of Neuroscience, Neurology and
Psychology at the University of Southern California, where he directs the new
Brain and Creativity Institute. He is also adjunct professor at the Salk Institute
and at the University of Iowa. He is the recipient of numerous awards (several
shared with his wife Hanna Damasio, also a neurologist and neuroscientist),
most recently the 2005 Prince of Asturias Prize in Science and Technology. He
is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, a
fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the author of two
other widely acclaimed books, The Feeling of What Happens and Looking for
Spinoza, which are translated in over 30 languages.
“An ambitious and meticulous foray into the nature of being.”
—The Boston Globe
“Tap-dancing on the edge between philosophy and science, Damasio cogently
rejects simplistic divisions between mind and body.”
—The Philadelphia Inquirer (Notable Book of the Year) “Damasio is to be
congratulated for presenting us with a clear view of how reason and emotions
interact to produce our decisions, our beliefs, our plans for action … He has
made a superb contribution to this ongoing and exciting endeavor by recognizing
the links between the body and the mind, emotion and reason.”
—Natural History
“Better than a novel. Descartes’ Error constitutes a true event that revolutionizes
our understanding of the most precious of our organs.”
—Figaro Magazine
“Here, at last, is an attempt by one of the world’s foremost neurologists to
synthesize what is known about the workings of the human brain. It bases its
arguments on a profound knowledge of the brain rather than on a wish to
redesign it as an engineer might. It deserves to become a classic.”
—David Hubel, Nobel laureate, Harvard University “Descartes’ Error is a
delightfully written account of the author’s views on brain function. It is suitable
for people who wonder how we wonder, for physicians who need to be reminded
of what a wonderful creation is the brain, and for scientists who want to see how
a hypothesis should be tested.”
—Journal of the American Medical Association “Damasio’s arguments are
ingenious and wide ranging … His thoughtful and modest exposition should be
taken seriously. Apart from illuminating the function of the fontal lobes, he has
proposed a new physiological mechanism that is likely to be much investigated
over the next few years. It is no mean feat to say something original and
intelligible about emotion.”
—Nature
“Damasio has written this book with the literary skill of a suspense novel and yet
it offers sound, easily accessible and reliable information about what is known of
the anatomy, organization and functions of the forebrain … by all means, read
this book.”
—Integrative Physiological and Behavioral Science “Damasio lays out a
provocative theory … emotion is part and parcel of what we call cognition. If
there is a severe impairment of the emotions, we cannot have rationality.”
—The Washington Post
“A lucid demonstration that human emotion is as worthy of scientific
investigation as motor function, language or memory … Its most important
achievement is the challenge it poses to cognitive neuroscience. We may well be
about to discover that the heart is after all in the head.”
—Financial Times
DESCARTES’ ERROR
Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain
ANTONIO DAMASIO
PENGUIN BOOKS
For Hanna
PENGUIN BOOKS
Published by the Penguin Group
Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014,
U.S.A.
Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario,
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Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank,
Johannesburg 2196, South Africa Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80
Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England First published in the United States of
America by G. P. Putnam’s Sons,
a division of the Putnam Berkley Group, Inc. 1994
Published in Penguin Books 2005
20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12
Copyright © Antonio R. Damasio, 1994
All rights reserved
All figures are original. The figure on page 28 was prepared by Kathleen
Rockland.
All others are by Hanna Damasio. The figure on page 104 contains a
photomicrograph from the work of Roger Tootell, reproduced with his
permission and that of the Journal of Neuroscience. The figures on pages 141
and 143 contain photos of Julie Fiez, used with her permission.
THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS HAS CATALOGED THE HARDCOVER
EDITION AS FOLLOWS: Damasio, Antonio R.
Descartes’ error: emotion, reason, and the human brain / Antonio R. Damasio
p. cm.
ISBN: 978-1-101-64013-5
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Emotions—Physiological aspects. 2. Reason—Physiological aspects.
3. Neuropsychology. 4. Title.
QP401.D2 1994 153.4′3-dc20 94-28473 CIP
Printed in the United States of America
Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the condition
that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or
otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding
or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition
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Contents

Preface
Introduction
PART I
Chapter 1 Unpleasantness in Vermont

Phineas P. Gage. Gage Was No Longer Gage. Why
Phineas Gage? An Aside on Phrenology. A
Landmark by Hindsight
Chapter 2 Gage’s Brain Revealed

The Problem. An Aside on the Anatomy of Nervous
Systems. The Solution
Chapter 3 A Modern Phineas Gage

A New Mind. Responding to the Challenge.
Reasoning and Deciding
Chapter 4 In Colder Blood
Evidence from Other Cases of Prefrontal Damage.
Evidence from Damage Beyond Prefrontal Cortices.
A Reflection on Anatomy and Function. A
Fountainhead. Evidence from Animal Studies. An
Aside on Neurochemical Explanations.
Conclusion
PART II
Chapter 5 Assembling an Explanation

A Mysterious Alliance. Of Organisms, Bodies, and
Brains. States of Organisms. Body and Brain
Interact: The Organism Within. Of Behavior and
Mind. Organism and Environment Interact: Taking
On the World Without. An Aside on the
Architecture of Neural Systems. An Integrated
Mind from Parcellated Activity. Images of Now,
Images of the Past, and Images of the Future.
Forming Perceptual Images. Storing Images and
Forming Images in Recall. Knowledge Is Embodied
in Dispositional Representations. Thought Is Made
Largely of Images. Some Words on Neural
Development
Chapter 6 Biological Regulation and Survival

Dispositions for Survival. More on Basic Regulation.
Tristan, Isolde, and the Love Potion. Beyond Drives
and Instincts
Chapter 7 Emotions and Feelings

Emotions. The Specificity of Neural Machinery
Behind the Emotions. Feelings. Fooling the Brain.
Varieties of Feelings. The Body as Theater for the
Emotions. Minding the Body. The Process of Feeling
Chapter 8 The Somatic-Marker Hypothesis

Reasoning and Deciding. Reasoning and Deciding in
a Personal and Social Space. Rationality at Work.
The Somatic-Marker Hypothesis. An Aside on
Altruism. Somatic Markers: Where Do They All
Come From? A Neural Network for Somatic
Markers. Somatic Markers: Theater in the Body or
Theater in the Brain? Overt and Covert Somatic
Markers. Intuition. Reasoning Outside the Personal
and Social Domains. The Help of Emotion, for
Better and for Worse. Beside and Beyond Somatic
Markers. Biases and the Creation of Order
PART III
Chapter 9 Testing the Somatic-Marker Hypothesis

To Know but Not to Feel. Risk Taking: The
Gambling Experiments. Myopia for the Future.
Predicting the Future: Physiological Correlates
Chapter 10 The Body-Minded Brain

No Body, Never Mind. The Body as Ground
Reference. The Neural Self
Chapter 11 A Passion for Reasoning