Descartes' Error

Emotion, Reason and the Human Brain

Ranked #15 in Neuroscience, Ranked #19 in Neurologysee more rankings.

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... more

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We've comprehensively compiled reviews of Descartes' Error from the world's leading experts.

David Brooks Damasio worked with people who have suffered strokes and as a result are incapable of feeling emotion. And far from making good decisions, they make terrible decisions, and their lives fall apart. (Source)

Paul Thagard This book understood emotion in terms of what the brain does – not as a kind of abstract computational process but very much tied in with the particular brain processes. (Source)


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