Looking for Spinoza: Joy, Sorrow and the Feeling BrainCompleting the trilogy that began with Descartes Error and continued with "The Feeling of What Happens," noted neuroscientist Damasio now focuses the full force of his research on emotions as he shows how joy and sorrow are cornerstones of humankind's survival. "One of the best brain stories of the decade."-"New York Times Book Review." 30 illustrations throughout. (Philosophy). Completing the trilogy that began with Descartes' Error and continued with The Feeling of What Happens, noted neuroscientist Antonio Damasio now focuses the full force of his research and wisdom on emotions. He shows how joy and sorrow are cornerstones of our survival. As he investigates the cerebral mechanisms behind emotions and feelings, Damasio argues that the internal regulatory processes not only preserve life within ourselves, but they create, motivate, and even shape our greatest cultural accomplishments. If Descartes declared a split between mind and body, Spinoza not only unified the two but intuitively understood the role of emotions in human survival and culture. So it is Spinoza who accompanies Damasio as he journeys back to the seventeenth century in search of a philosopher who, in Damasio's view, prefigured modern neuroscience. In Looking for Spinoza Damasio brings us closer to understanding the delicate interaction between affect, consciousness, and memory-the processes that both keep us alive and make life worth living. Drawing on research and patients' case studies, leading neurologist Damasio (U. of Iowa Medical Center), author of Descartes' Error, deconstructs the life and thought of this radical 17th century Dutch-Jewish philosopher, who anticipated modern views on mind-body unity, as a springboard for his model of the biological basis for emotions and feelings. This general audience treatment includes illustrations, a glossary, and chronology. Joy, sorrow, jealousy, and awe-these and other feelings are |
