Pure emotion error

This book’s central argument is about the essential role of emotion in rational decision-making, challenging the long-held idea (often associated with Descartes’ dualism) that reason and emotion are separate. The search snippets you provided are all about this book.

🧠 Synopsis of Descartes’ Error (The probable match)

• The Error: Damásio argues against the traditional view that the mind (reason) is separate from the body (emotion), a concept he refers to as “Descartes’ error.”
• The Core Thesis: Emotions and feelings are not a luxury or an interference; they are essential for rational thought and wise decision-making. The absence of emotion can actually break down rationality.
• The Evidence: The book uses the famous medical case of Phineas Gage—a 19th-century construction foreman whose personality and behavior drastically changed after a rod passed through his prefrontal cortex—and other modern clinical cases of brain damage.
• The Mechanism (Somatic Marker Hypothesis): Damásio proposes that emotional responses, which he calls “somatic markers,” guide or bias our behavior and decision-making by quickly marking outcomes as favorable or unfavorable based on past experiences.
• Conclusion: The mind, brain, and body form an indivisible whole, with emotions being a critical component of the biological machinery that enables us to be functional, rational beings.