Descartes' Error: Antonio Damasio's Somatic Marker Hypothesis
Then & Now: Philosophy, History & Politics
The Role of Feeling in Decision-Making
DiMazio argues that feelings play a central role in this process. He writes that feelings point us to the appropriate place in a decision-making space. And that emotion, feeling and biological regulation all play a role in human reason. But what is feeling? To understand this, we have to think about our body's relationship with the brain.
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And you shall set limits for the people all around saying, take care not to go up into the mountain or touch the edge of it. Whoever touches the mountain shall be put to death. No hand shall touch him, but he shall be stoned or shot whether beast or man he shall not live. When the trumpet sounds along blast, they shall come up to the mountain. Okay. This is God speaking to Moses. And the first thing he's telling Moses, Moses, I'm going to appear in a thick cloud. Okay. I want you to let all the people know. He goes, and the reason why I'm doing this is because I want them to believe in you forever. Okay. Because right now you're saying, oh yeah, I meet with God. I meet with God. I want them to see. No, you meet with me. And he says, so I want you to get them ready, prepare them, consecrate them. You're going to see a human being interact with God. This is an incredible moment. But as I was reading this passage, you know, when it talks about, okay, set limits, set boundaries. Make sure the people don't walk up into the mountain. Make sure they don't even touch the base of the mountain. If they even touch the base of the mountain, I want you to kill them. In fact, but don't even touch him. I don't even want you touching that unholy person. Just grab a stone or shoot him. Don't even touch that person. And I remember when I read that, I thought, gosh, that seems harsh. That's the first, I'm just being honest with you. That feels extreme. So if some guy, even accidentally touches the base of the mountain, you've got to stone him to death. And as I was pondering that, I just realized why is that so hard for me to stomach? And I realized a lot of it is because I've grown up in a generation that questions God for setting boundaries and questions his right to be able to set boundaries. I've also grown up in a generation where to meet with God is a very ordinary or common thing. And what God is showing here is this is not just an ordinary thing. This is holy. Holy is the opposite of common. This is set apart. It's distinct. And he wanted everyone to know, look, a man is about to meet with God.
Descartes’ Error is a 1994 book by the neuroscientist Antonio Damasio which outlines the somatic marker hypothesis, a theory about how the mind and body not only interact, but are indissociable. Damasio argues that those feelings provide what he calls ‘somatic markers’ for the mind that aid decision making. They point us in the right (or wrong) direction.The rationalist or Cartesian view – what Damasio calls the ‘high-reason’ view – suggests that our mind is like a computer. We’re running through all of this incomplete knowledge about the job – the commute, the career prospects, the people, the location, while weighing up the advantages and disadvantages as if its a ledger. But Damasio writes ‘you will lose track. Attention and working memory have a limited capacity.’This is where somatic markers come in. He writes:‘before you apply any kind of cost/benefit analysis to the premises, and before you reason toward the solution of the problem, something quite important happens: When the bad outcome connected with a given response option comes into mind, however fleetingly, you experience an unpleasant gut feeling. Because the feeling is about the body, I gave the phenomenon the technical term somatic state.’He continues:The somatic marker ‘forces attention on the negative outcome to which a given action may lead, and functions as an automated alarm signal which says: Beware the danger ahead if you choose the option which leads to this outcome. The signal may reject, immediately, the negative course of action and thus make you choose among other alternatives.’Somatic markers – the collection of feelings we get from bodily and mental impulses – highlight certain options for us to deliberate while eliminating others. They’re a kind of screening process.Then & Now is FAN-FUNDED! Support me on Patreon and pledge as little as $1 per video: http://patreon.com/user?u=3517018
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