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

Author: Antonio Damasio Year: 1994 Rank: Rating: Original Rating: Pop Rating: Genres/categories: Psychology, Science, Non Fiction, Philosophy Purchase/reserch links: Goodreads Amazon LibraryThing ISBNs: 9780399138942 0399138943

Since Descartes famously proclaimed, "I think, therefore I am," science has often overlooked emotions as the source of a person's true being. Even modern neuroscience has tended, until recently, to concentrate on the cognitive aspects of brain function, disregarding emotions. This attitude began to change with the publication of Descartes' Error in 1995. Antonio Damasio--"one of the world's leading neurologists" (The New York Times)--challenged traditional ideas about the connection between emotions and rationality. In this wondrously engaging book, Damasio takes the reader on a journey of scientific discovery through a series of case studies, demonstrating what many of us have long suspected: emotions are not a luxury, they are essential to rational thinking and to normal social behavior. Similar books: The Feeling of What Happens by Antonio Damasio Self Comes to Mind by Antonio Damasio Phantoms in the Brain by V. S. Ramachandran Mapping the Mind by Rita Carter Synaptic Self by Joseph Ledoux The Master and His Emissary by Iain McGilchrist Looking for Spinoza by Antonio Damasio Human by Michael S. Gazzaniga Making up the Mind by Chris Frith The Emotional Brain by Joseph Ledoux How the Mind Works by Steven Pinker The Mind and the Brain by Jeffrey M. Schwartz Kluge by Gary Marcus The Tell-Tale Brain by V. S. Ramachandran Phi by Giulio Tononi The Language Instinct by Steven Pinker The Dragons of Eden by Carl Sagan The Spell of the Sensuous by David Abram The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe by Steven Novella Vehicles by Valentino Braitenberg