Looking for Spinoza
Joy, Sorrow, and the Feeling Brain Antonio Damasio
It seems that the whole Spinoza thing was really motivated by the last chapter where he gets down to the meaning-of-life issue, and says that Spinoza had it more or less right, except for being too socially isolated and too passive. He's consistent with a scientific view, and also believes in emotion and intuition. He feels that you should take responsibility for and try to manage your emotions. As close you can get to paradise is the sense-of-wonder of the universe.
I don't recall any really new concepts, but there is more argument in favor of his ideas. One of the parts that was more striking was the only mention of neurological evidence, which is the people with prefrontal damage that affects their decision-making, apparently due to loss of the social emotions. But I think this is also in Descartes' Error, which I've partially read (and is a much better book.)
Damasio's main ideas are:
- Emotion is important for thinking
- The somatic-marker hypothesis
- An appreciation for the unconscious
Figure 4.2, p. 149, is a somewhat interesting graphic of decision making, showing how the unconscious and emotions affects decision-making. He appreciates the possibility of either deliberate intuition or unconscious biasing of decision-making though affecting the generation of options, reasoning strategies, and the decision itself.
Discussion