Looking for Spinoza: Joy, Sorrow, and the Feeling Brain

Antonio R. Damasio

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2003 - History - 355 pages

Joy, sorrow, jealousy, and awe--these and other feelings are the stuff of our daily lives. Thought to be too private for science to explain and not essential for understanding cognition, they have largely been ignored. But not by Spinoza, and not by Antonio Damasio. Here, in a humane work of science, Damasio draws on his innovative research and on his experience with neurological patients to examine how feelings and the emotions that underlie them support human survival and enable the spirit's greatest creations.
Looking for Spinoza reveals the biology of our sophisticated survival mechanisms. It rediscovers a thinker whose work prefigures modern neuroscience, not only in his emphasis on emotions and feelings, but also in his refusal to separate mind and body. Together, the scientist and the philosopher help us understand what we're made of, and what we're here for. Based on laboratory investigations but moving beyond those to society and culture, "Looking for Spinoza" is a master work of science and writing.
Antonio Damasio, widely recognized as one of the world's leading neuroscientists, has for decades been investigating the neurobiological foundations of human life. In "Descartes' Error" he explored the importance of emotion in rational behavior, and in "The Feeling of What Happens" he developed the neurobiology of the self. Damasio's new book on feeling and emotion offers unexpected grounds for optimism about our survival and the human condition.

Contents

• II: 3
• III: 8
• IV: 15
• V: 17
• VI: 23
• VII: 25
• VIII: 27
• IX: 29
• X: 37
• XI: 38
• XII: 40
• XIII: 43
• XIV: 53
• XV: 54
• XVI: 57
• XVII: 65
• XVIII: 73
• XIX: 74
• XX: 77
• XXI: 79
• XXII: 81
• XXIII: 83
• XXIV: 89
• XXV: 91
• XXVI: 93
• XXVII: 96
• XXVIII: 101
• XXIX: 104
• XXX: 105
• XXXI: 109
• XXXII: 111
• XXXIII: 112
• XXXIV: 118
• XXXV: 119
• XXXVI: 121
• XXXVII: 124
• XXXVIII: 126
• XXXIX: 135
• XL: 137
• XLI: 140
• XLII: 144
• XLIII: 147
• XLIV: 150
• XLV: 152
• XLVI: 155
• XLVII: 159
• XLVIII: 166
• XLIX: 170
• L: 175
• LI: 181
• LII: 183
• LIII: 184
• LIV: 187
• LV: 191
• LVI: 195
• LVII: 198
• LIX: 200
• LX: 204
• LXI: 209
• LXII: 217
• LXIII: 221
• LXIV: 223
• LXV: 224
• LXVI: 227
• LXVII: 230
• LXVIII: 236
• LXIX: 240
• LXX: 245
• LXXI: 250
• LXXII: 254
• LXXIII: 258
• LXXIV: 261
• LXXV: 262
• LXXVI: 263
• LXXVII: 265
• LXXVIII: 267
• LXXIX: 273
• LXXX: 277
• LXXXI: 279
• LXXXII: 283
• LXXXIII: 291
• LXXXIV: 299
• LXXXV: 335
• LXXXVI: 339
• LXXXVII: 341

About the author

ANTONIO DAMASIO is the David Dornsife Professor of Neuroscience and Director of the Brain and Creativity Institute at the University of Southern California. He is also an adjunct professor at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla. He is a member of both the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Descartes' Error was an international bestseller. The Feeling of What Happens has been translated into seventeen languages.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Looking for Spinoza: Joy, Sorrow, and the Feeling Brain; A Harvest book
• Author: Antonio R. Damasio
• Edition: illustrated, reprint
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2003
• ISBN: 0156028719, 9780156028714
• Length: 355 pages
• Subjects: History / Social History; History / World; Medical / Neuroscience; Medical / Psychiatry / General; Philosophy / History & Surveys / Modern; Philosophy / Individual Philosophers; Philosophy / Mind & Body; Psychology / Emotions; Psychology / Mental Health; Psychology / Neuropsychology; Psychology / Social Psychology; Science / Cognitive Science; Science / History; Science / Life Sciences / Neuroscience; Science / Philosophy & Social Aspects