ANTONIO DAMASIO is the David Dornsife Chair in Neuroscience, and professor of psychology, neurology and philosophy at USC, where he heads the Brain and Creativity Institute. His influential research has centred on the important role of emotion in social cognition.
'Damasio undertakes nothing less than a reconstruction of the
natural history of the universe. ... [A] brave and honest book' The
New York Times Book Review
'Bold and important ... Damasio, by unseating the mind from its
elevated throne within the brain, delivers an onslaught on one of
the core dogmas of conventional neuroscience ... Compelling and
refreshingly original' Nature
'In The Strange Order of Things, Antonio Damasio presents a new
vision of what it means to be human. For too long we have thought
of ourselves as rational minds inhabiting insentient mechanical
bodies. Breaking with this philosophy, Damasio shows how our minds
are rooted in feeling, a creation of our nervous system with an
evolutionary history going back to ancient unicellular life that
enables us to shape distinctively human cultures. Working out what
this implies for the arts, the sciences and the human future,
Damasio has given us that rarest of things, a book that can
transform how we think--and feel--about ourselves' John Gray,
Literary Review
'These pages make enthralling reading ... It is indispensable for
any psychoanalyst--and not only for psychoanalysts, of course.
Damasio is the closest thing we have in the post-truth era to a
great public intellectual' Mark Solms, Journal of the American
Psychoanalytic Association
'Nietzsche would have given four cheers for this intricately argued
book, which is at once scientifically rigorous and humanely
accommodating, and, so far as this reviewer can judge,
revolutionary ... The Strange Order of Things is a fresh and daring
effort to identify the true spring and source of human being - of
the being, in fact, of all living things - namely feeling' John
Banville, The Guardian
'A radical revision of how we understand mind, feeling,
consciousness, and the construction of cultures ... Damasio draws a
visionary link between biology and social science in a fascinating
investigation of homeostasis--the delicate balance that underpins
our physical existence, ensures our survival, and defines our
flourishing' Maria Popova, Brain Pickings
'Almost a quarter century after Descartes' Error, Antonio Damasio
has done it again--created a grand exploration of the inextricable
relationship between mind, body and the source of human feelings.
Along the way, Damasio takes the reader on an adventure that starts
with the single-celled organisms that existed billions of years
ago, proceeds through the development of nervous systems and
brains, and culminates with the origin of consciousness and human
cultures. Thought-provoking and highly original, this book can
change the way you look at yourself, and your species' Leonard
Mlodinow, author of Subliminal
'The Strange Order of Things is a foundational book. It provides
the concepts, the language, and the knowledge to explain in an
integrated framework the interplay between Nature and Culture at
the heart of the human condition. Damasio unveils the codes and
protocols that make humans human ... This is the beginning of a new
scientific revolution' Manuel Castells, author of Networks of
Outrage and Hope
'Following Oliver Sacks, Antonio Damasio may be the neuroscientist
whose popular books have done the most to inform readers about the
biological machinery in our heads, how it generates thoughts and
emotions, creates a self to cling to, and a sense of transcendence
to escape by...[the book] mounts his boldest argument yet for the
egalitarian role of the brain' Kevin Berger, Nautilus
'Damasio takes his reader on an intellectual journey he has made
himself, one of discovery, surprise, and insight. He explains his
points thoroughly but does not simplify what is complicated. He is
handy with a metaphor and avoids unnecessary jargon. In a world in
which specialisation has become so refined that the discourse of a
given discipline often becomes wholly unintelligible to those
outside it, Antonio Damasio conveys his thoughts with clarity and
grace and summons the works of composers and writers and
philosophers' Siri Hustvedt, Los Angeles Review of Books
'Damasio's books are marvels of scientific effervescence, of
conceptual invention, and, in the end, of modesty, of that sense of
the limits of knowledge that only knowledge is capable of imposing'
Le Monde
'Here is a new, strange and unassailable definition of life'
Slate
'Ever since his first book, Damasio has not wavered in his efforts
to rehabilitate emotions and feelings within cognitive processes.
In The Strange Order of Things he nails down the effort and goes
well beyond' Les Echos
'[Damasio] exerts a considerable influence on the fashioning of
contemporary thought and on all debates concerning neurology.
Damasio is one of the great thinkers of our time. A pioneer in his
field' L'Express
'[Damasio] has introduced something baroque in a science that has
been centered in one single organ, the brain. The Strange Order of
Things vibrates with a baroque sensibility' Le Figaro
'This disturbing book shakes our conceptions of the mechanisms
behind life, mind and culture. The author brings them together in a
single perspective centered on homeostasis ... It is incredibly,
formidably, refreshing ... A strange and ambitious book, which
draws on multiple disciplines and moves across time and space to
give us, very simply, a new definition of life' Revue Medicale
Suisse
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