Antonio Damasio
The thing I took out of Descartes' Error was something I already knew. You cannot separate the person from emotion. The brain is very complex. We can at least try to understand it. Whether it is where our emotions begin or where we process emotions, it is worth looking at.
Damasio uses big neuro-schmeuro words. But he helps us understand the brain rather easily I think. And he shows us what these words mean. He explains what he is talking about. What I like best is that he includes these little sections in the text to further our understanding or to bring up an important point.
Damasio tells us on more than one occasion that he is having a discussion with us. This is an important distinction to make from different types of books. He is not on his pulpit giving us golden specks of dust for our intellect. He is engaging with us, not engaging in battle against us.
If you thought that Reason and Passion were opposite ways to live by the time you reach this book you should have changed your mind. Damasio takes a well respected area and explores the often neglected area, he uses reason to explore passion.
Who we are, fundamentally, may not be a blank slate and may not be predetermined. Who we are can be explained by a lot of brain science and, at the same time, cannot be broken down and explained totally by brain science. Who we are is very complicated. It only makes sense to use our gift of reason to understand out instinctual passion.
The important message from Damasio is about relations not distinctions. He says "I am not attempting to reduce social phenomena to biological phenomena, but rather to discuss the powerful connection between them" (124).
We ought to stop dividing topic headers arbitrarily and try to understand how they operate, whether together or on their own. The charioteer and horses from Plato is best understood by considering not just the horses and not just the charioteer but by considering what each wants and how they interact, and ultimately what they are striving for.
Damasio is just a current reminder that the horses aren't separate from each other or us. And his book does a nice job of putting things back into context. Remember: the powerful connection is more important than the individual parts. I should note that I am not arguing against exploration of the individual parts when I say that, neither do I think Damasio would do that. It is simply that the bigger picture should be kept in mind.
Reason and Passion need not be separate. Drive on charioteers.
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