Feeling & Knowing: Making Minds Conscious

About this book

From one of the worlds 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 acrossmultiple 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.