Quote From Antonio Damasio About Understanding Emotions
Quotes from Antonio Damasio always communicate the importance of feelings for human development. Few neurologists have contributed as much in the fields of human emotion and motivation as Damasio. People do not call him the “brain magician” for no reason.
Vilayanur Ramachandran is another reputable and well-known neurologist from the University of California. He once said that homo sapiens are the fascinating beings who are capable of seeing the cosmos reflected in their own senses. This poetic comparison is revealing and true.
The moment we began to reflect on ourselves, we took a big step forward as a species.
On the other hand, we can not deny that the human brain has almost as many mysteries as the universe itself. Looking at the unimaginable darkness strewn with stars that surround us every night produces almost the same dizziness as looking within ourselves. According to Antonio Damasio, however, today we know much more about the brain than the universe.
Damasio is an excellent researcher and an exceptional educator. He is curious and passionate. He is a neurophilosopher who can provide answers to questions that we all sometimes ask ourselves.
At the end of the day, everything that we are, everything that we feel and everything in created as society and civilization is in the amazing organ that is the human brain.
Humans differ from other animals for one basic reason: sophisticated intelligence. There are a few aspects of our intelligence that set us apart from other species. One is our incredible memory; another use of our language. In addition, Damasio points out another important human trait: emotions.
Everything that we are and everything that we have achieved comes from our emotions. They are what motivates us to find solutions to our problems. They pressure us to find alternatives and new paths when we encounter obstacles. Another important aspect of Damasio’s theories is the clear distinction between emotions and the emotional reaction they give rise to in the body.
The difference is not always clear when we talk about “feelings” in Swedish, but they are not the same thing. This often appears in quotes from Antonio Damasio. The concepts and quotes come from interesting books such as Descartes’ Mistakes, The Strange Order of Things and The Feeling of What Happens.
When you confront anger or a person who makes you uncomfortable, your body will react with emotion. Your heart beats faster, you get chills, your stomach twists…
So the mental representation you have of this fear and the associated thoughts is what constitutes the emotional response in the body. This is without a doubt one of the most famous quotes from Antonio Damasio.
Emotions come before the emotional response, they are chemical and organic changes. But it is the emotional response that leads us to make a decision. In the example mentioned above, you may decide to flee from the person who scares you.
Antonio Damasio makes this very clear: consciousness is present in most living beings. The moment a brain (in a primate, dolphin, dog or reptile) creates a feeling of self , consciousness emerges. After all, this being is not in any corner of the brain; it is simply a process that arises.
There is something that sets us apart from other species. It is the fact that evolution has expanded our consciousness much more. There we find creativity, memory and logical thinking.
This is another important quote from Antonio Damasio if you want to understand his work. His hypothesis comes from the following principle: an emotion is a set of chemical reactions and nerve responses that form a distinct pattern. When you encounter certain stimuli, a specific reaction occurs. This is because the brain is the result of an evolution of learned behavioral patterns.
After that comes the emotional response, with which we channel the emotion towards a specific behavior. We target it at a more or less effective type of response. As such , one can say that emotions are basically the spark of life. They are what lead us to action.
Damasio has always been sensitive to the social crises of mankind. It is common to hear him talk about violence, inequality and conflict in his lectures. He believes that we have lost our sense of humanity. He believes that we allow ourselves to be swept away by negative emotions such as anger and resentment.
We must be able to create environments that encourage positive emotions. Only then will we thrive, only then will we understand each other better.
This is another of the quotes from Antonio Damasio that are among the most well known. He often expresses skepticism about artificial intelligence and its future with us. Just as he explains in his latest book The Strange Order of Things , this type of being will never be able to be compared to the human consciousness. We must remember that our brains are the result of a sophisticated evolutionary process.
These calculation-based processes are based on code and silicon lacks experience, emotions, fears, vulnerability and of course consciousness. This is why they will never have genuine emotional responses. They can help us in many ways, but they will never be intelligent.
As we put it in these quotes from Antonio Damasio, people are the result of a brain development that is characterized by self-awareness, language and above all emotions. So even though this organ is made up of 100,000 million nerve cells that seem to be wrapped in a mystery, scientists like Damasio are helping us understand more and more about it and ourselves every day.
