Feeling & Knowing

Making Minds Conscious

De: Antonio Damasio

Narrado por: Julian Morris

From one of the world’s leading neuroscientists: a succinct, illuminating, wholly engaging investigation of how biology, neuroscience, psychology, and artificial intelligence have given us the tools to unlock the mysteries of human consciousness

“One thrilling insight after another ... Damasio has succeeded brilliantly in narrowing the gap between body and mind.” —The New York Times Book Review

In recent decades, many philosophers and cognitive scientists have declared the problem of consciousness unsolvable, but Antonio Damasio is convinced that recent findings across multiple scientific disciplines have given us a way to understand consciousness and its significance for human life.

In the forty-eight brief chapters of Feeling & Knowing, and in writing that remains faithful to our intuitive sense of what feeling and experiencing are about, Damasio helps us understand why being conscious is not the same as sensing, why nervous systems are essential for the development of feelings, and why feeling opens the way to consciousness writ large. He combines the latest discoveries in various sciences with philosophy and discusses his original research, which has transformed our understanding of the brain and human behavior.

Here is an indispensable guide to understand­ing how we experience the world within and around us and find our place in the universe.

Reseñas de la Crítica

“Here the master scientist unites with the silken prose-stylist to produce one thrilling insight after another . . . Damasio has succeeded brilliantly in narrowing the gap between body and mind.”
—The New York Times Book Review

“Damasio’s concise, precise, and lucid prose effectively convey the core insight he has distilled over decades (2): that affect—encompassing, emotions, feelings, motivations, and moods—is central to understanding what we do, how we think, and who we are.”
—Science

“Damasio writes lucid prose clearly addressed to a popular audience. Even better, the book is concise and helpfully divided into dozens of short chapters, many only one or two pages. Make no mistake, however; Damasio is a deep thinker familiar with multiple disciplines, and this is as much a work of philosophy as hard science. Readers familiar with college level psychology and neuroscience will discover rewarding insights.”
—Kirkus Reviews

“So much of what novelists and poets write about touches on the centrality of feeling, especially on the polar opposites of feeling joy or suffering. I think great books, and movies too, touch on humanity so deeply. Their topics are the ones I chose for my research.”
—The Boston Globe

“There is something seductive about the succinct, almost literary, chapters and Damasio’s unabashed wonder at and reverence for the concept of consciousness—although he believes it can be explained using the disciplines known to us, he is no less in awe of its mechanisms. It is clear, for example, that Damasio holds in reverence the fact that our bodies can both experience feelings and modify those feelings within the same vessel. And often, this awe shines through in charming, allusive, whimsical sentences.”
—Undark

I wish it would have been longer 🧐

This book really had great insight on consciousness. The author took his time to put this book together. This book has me intrigued as to what else is out there.

FEELING & KNOWING

Antonio Damasio refines the definition of consciousness in "Feeling & Knowing". Damasio offers a more science based, experiment driven, view of consciousness than Helen Thompson's "Unthinkable..." "Feeling and Knowing" is a shorter version of Anil Seth's book "Being You" that also addresses consciousness. Thompson offers a less science driven view of consciousness based on patient interviews that reinforce Damasio's and Seth's views. There seems a slight difference between Damasio's and Seth's view of consciousness in the belief that emotions or feelings are the source of thought and knowledge origination. Seth argues emotions originate in the organs of the body and inform the brain. Damasio is more circumspect and seems to argue emotions come from the body and brain in a synchronous way.

If Damasio is correct, for A.I. to become a learning machine, emotion must be a part of its programming. If emotion can be and is programmed into a machine, there seems a probability that humanity will become servant rather than master of the universe.

Damasio’s Brilliance

Antonio Damasio has eloquently articulated the most critical distinctions involved in Consciousness, like no other before him in all of Science. I have read each of his works and in my humble opinion, this book is the elegant evolution of his previous writing.

HIGH Level Explanation

Damasio is obviously an expert in his field and this audiobook is packed with incredible, detailed information. It is very academic. You will have to use your imagination to find ways to implement all the insights.

So good

Love DeMasio and this book is beautiful and profound and poetic. He synthesizes so much of his work in this book.