Descartes' Error

Descartes' Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain

The original paperback edition
Author	António Damásio
Language	English
Published	1994
Pages	312
ISBN	978-0-399-13894-2

Descartes' Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain is a 1994 book by neurologist António Damásio, in part a treatment of the mind/body dualism question. Damásio presents the "somatic marker hypothesis", a proposed mechanism by which emotions guide (or bias) behavior and decision-making, and positing that rationality requires emotional input. He argues that René Descartes' "error" was the dualist separation of mind and body, rationality and emotion.

Publication data

• Descartes' Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain, Putnam Publishing, 1994, hardcover: ISBN 0-399-13894-3
  • Harper Perennial, 1995 paperback: ISBN 0-380-72647-5
  • Penguin, 2005 paperback reprint: ISBN 0-14-303622-X

See also

• The Social Animal
• Gerald Edelman
• Oliver Sacks
• Triune brain

Further reading

J. Birtchnell, The Two of Me: The Rational Outer Me and The Emotional Inner Me (London 2003)

J. Panksepp, Affective Neuroscience (OUP 1998)