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More copies of this ISBN:This title in other formats:Looking for Spinoza: Joy, Sorrow, and the Human Brainby Antonio Damasio
Synopses & ReviewsPublisher Comments: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. Book News Annotation:Drawing on research and patients' case studies, leading neurologist
Damasio (U. of Iowa Medical Center), author of ,
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.
Annotation (c)2003 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com) Review:"Damasio has the rare talent of rendering science intelligible while also being gifted in philosophy, literature and wit." Los Angeles Times Review:"Damasio's fullest report so far on the nature of feelings....Given his professional background, it is not surprising that Damasio is more persuasive when talking neuroscience than philosophy. But overall, he succeeds in making the latest brain research accessible to the general reader, while his passionate Spinozist reflections make that data relevant to everyday life." Publishers Weekly Review:"In clear, accessible and eloquent prose, Damasio is outlining a new vision of the human soul." San Francisco Chronicle Review:"Compelling." Scientific American Review:"One of the best brain stories of the decade." New York Times Book Review Synopsis:Completing 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. Synopsis: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. Synopsis:Advance praise for Looking for Spinoza: "This is the boldest, the most satisfying, and the most personal of Antonio Damasio's books, presenting dazzling insights into the nature of emotion and feeling." -- Oliver Sacks, author of The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Uncle Tungsten
"This is an enticingly original work that offers page after page of startling insights about the workings of the mind. It creates in its entirety that rarest of effects: the quality of revelation." --William Styron, author of Sophie's Choice and Darkness Visible "Damasio, one of the leading thinkers about the function of the human brain, has done it again! He has written a remarkable book about the biological underpinnings of feelings and their ramifications for human behavior. We could not ask for a better guide to take us through this domain." --Eric R. Kandel, Nobel Laureate, Columbia University "In Looking for Spinoza, Damasio, one of the world's foremost neurologists, addresses some of the most difficult questions concerning brain and mind, in the context of a deep and wide grasp of art, music and, philosophy. This book is a huge and most impressive accomplishment." --David Hubel, Nobel Laureate, Harvard University "A brilliant intellectual exercise but also a meditation, on how to reach happiness and a better life. A rare and almost unique attempt to examine the most recent neurobiological knowledge about emotions and feelings in the framework of Spinoza's thinking." -- Jean-Pierre Changeux, Collège de France and Institut Pasteur "A brilliant and fortifying book. Looking for Spinoza offers us more than a riveting narrative of intellectual affiliation, and more than a scientifically refined regard for what it means to be human; it offers a new frontier for genuinely informed hope. --Peter Sacks, Harvard University "An extraordinary book-beautifully written and deeply, incisively, creating connections across time and space." --Peter Brook, Theater and Film Director About the AuthorAntonio R. Damasio is the Van Allen Professor and head of the department of neurology at the University of Iowa Medical Center and is an adjunct professor at the Salk Institute in San Diego. Descartes' Error was nominated for the Los Angeles Times Book Award, and has been translated into twenty-three languages. He lives in Iowa City and Chicago. What Our Readers Are SayingBe the first to add a comment for a chance to win!Product Details
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