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Antonio Damasio: This Time With Feeling

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The Aspen Institute

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Antonio Damasio: How Emotions Help Us Make Decisions

03 min 22 sec

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Antonio Damasio, noted researcher and professor of neuroscience at USC, explains how emotions are integral to decision-making. He discusses his experiences working with people with brain damage who are unable to decide things as simple as where to go to dinner.
The Difference Between Feeling and Emotion

05 min 08 sec

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Antonio Damasio explains that even though many people use the words "feeling" and "emotion" interchangeably, there is a key difference between the two. "Emotion," he explains, is "a set of actions" programmed into us from birth, while "feelings" are how our conscious mind interprets these responses.
Emotions and Evolution: What Would Genes Do?

02 min 23 sec

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Antonio Damasio argues that even though emotions are viewed as a human trait, they are probably one of the earliest evolutionary advancements.

He explains that emotions are "a way to live for as long as possible", asking "if you were a gene, what would you do?"
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01 hr 05 min 35 sec

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There are 7 comments on this program

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Previous FORAtv comments:

MTVSL

Posted: 03.31.11, 10:11 AM

kchartstein, I find it odd that you would have such a low opinion of both David Brook and Gene Roddenberry who both seem to me to be quite intelligent, even when compared with the likes of Antonio Damasio. I find Antonio's thinking to be absolute genious however not revelutionary or unique. I suppose in western thinking it might be fairly unique but when compared with the thinking of many asian and south asian cultures, he is really just reinventing the wheel. His basic idea as far as I can tell is what Buddhists refer to as duality, in this case the duality of logic and emotion. He is realizing on his own the balance of the universe, which is quite remarkable. Not an easy concept to come up with.

Emilio Marengo

Posted: 10.01.10, 06:35 AM

I love you Antonio... (great stuff professor!!)

morrison33

Posted: 06.06.10, 06:19 AM

Great to hear Professor. Damasio in person. His ideas about the precise involvement of emotional activity in the way we make decisions was revolutionary when it came out in 1995 and it remains so in 2010. Great work.

wsoutherland

Posted: 11.23.09, 06:06 PM

You may refer to him as Mr. Spock or Ambassador Spock. Dr. (Benjamin) Spock was a real life pediatrician who wrote a bunch of books on how to raise children.

kchartstein

Posted: 08.17.09, 04:31 PM

My frustration with David Brooks as an interview can be summed up by this comment during the portion on STUDYING EMOTION: "We have modern philosophers: a guy named Gene Roddenberry who created a guy named Dr. Spock..." I can't really blame him though. If I had the chance to interview Antonio Damasio (whom I count as one of the most important thinkers of our time) I'm pretty sure I would stutter and stare too. For a more coherent Brooks, who actually has some great ideas integrating neuroscience and sociology I would recommend his lecture (on FORA).