Talk:Antonio Damasio

Philosophy and Neurobiology


Extract from Los Angeles Times, April 27, 2003: Soul-searching science Looking for Spinoza: Joy, Sorrow, and the Feeling Brain, Antonio Damasio, Harcourt: 356 pp., ISBN: 0151005575. By Margaret Jacob.


 * We learn that the brain possesses body-sensing regions that enable it to construct "maps of the ongoing body state." These regions are critically important, Damasio argues. Without them feelings would be impossible. Unlike what was previously believed, feelings are not instantaneous. They require anywhere from two to 20 seconds to it takes the brain to register changes in body temperature, glucose levels or genital stimulation {sympathetic nervous system}. Put another way, {William James' bear} was right when he argued that feelings are what happen when the brain senses the body being changed by emotion. Feelings or affect become the end product of a deeply physical process that unfolds in the mind.

From Antonio Damasio's Looking for Spinoza; Joy, Sorrow, and the Feeling Brain; ISBN 0151005575 2003; p. :170-1 —Conatus and The Foundation of Virtue:


 * [1] I wrote early in this book that my return to Spinoza came almost by chance as I tried to check the accuracy of a quote I kept on a yellowed paper, a link to the Spinoza I had read long ago. Why had I kept the quote? Perhaps because it was something I intuited as specific and illuminating. But I had never paused to analyze it in detail until it traveled from my memory to the page I was working on.


 * [2] The quote comes from 4P18 of The Ethics and it reads: "... the very first foundation of virtue is the endeavor (conatum) to preserve the individual self, and happiness consists in the human capacity to preserve its self." A comment on the terms used by Spinoza is in order before we go any further. First, as noted earlier, the word conatu can be rendered as endeavor or tendency or effort, and Spinoza may have meant any of these, or perhaps a blend of the three meanings. Second, the word virtutis can refer not just to its traditional moral meaning, but also to power, and ability to act. I shall return to this issue. Curiously, in this passage, he uses the word felicitatem, which is best translated as happiness {better is Peace-of-Mind}, rather than laetitia, which can be translated as joy, elation, delight, and happiness.


 * [3] At first glance the words sound like a prescription for the selfish culture of our times but nothing could be further from their real meaning. As I interpret it, the proposition is a cornerstone for a generous ethical system. It is an affirmation that at the base of whatever rules of behavior we may ask humanity to follow, there is something inalienable: A living organism, known to its owner because the owner's mind has constructed a self, has a natural tendency to preserve its own life; and that same organism's state of optimal functioning, subsumed by the concept of joy, results from the successful endeavor to endure and prevail. Paraphrased in deeply American terms I would rewrite Spinoza's proposition as follows: I hold these truths to be self-evident, that all humans are created such that they tend to preserve their life and seek well-being, that their happiness {better is {Peace-of-Mind} comes from the successful endeavor to do so, and that the foundation of virtue rests on these facts. Perhaps these resonances are not a coincidence.


 * [4] Spinoza's statement rings clear as a bell, but it does require elaboration for its full impact to be appreciated. Why should a concern for oneself be the basis for virtue, lest that virtue pertain to that self alone? Or, to put it more bluntly, how does Spinoza move from oneself to all the selves to whom virtue must apply? Spinoza makes the transition relying again on biological facts. Here is the procedure: The biological reality of self-preservation leads to virtue because in our inalienable need to maintain ourselves we must, of necessity, help preserve other selves {Golden Rule}. If we fail to do so we perish and are thus violating the foundational principle, and relinquishing the virtue that lies in self-preservation. The secondary foundation of virtue then is the reality of a social structure and the presence of other living organisms in a complex system of interdependence with our own organism. We are in a bind, literally, in the good sense of the word. The essence of this transition can be found in Aristotle, but Spinoza ties it to a biological principle—the mandate for self-preservation.


 * [5] So here is the beauty behind the cherished quote {from 4P18}, seen from today's perspective: It contains the foundation for a system of ethical behaviors and that foundation is neurobiological. The foundation is the result of a discovery based on the observation of human nature rather than the revelation of a prophet.

Yesselman 14:34, 11 January 2006 (UTC)

"American" categories
Are these right? The article doesn't mention him having become an American. None of the interwiki'd articles have any nationality categories except "Portuguese". A Geek Tragedy 16:05, 1 September 2006 (UTC)
 * Since no-one argued for them I hav removed them. Feel free to put hem back if you know they are right. Probably best you add to the article how he became American too.A Geek Tragedy 11:19, 6 September 2006 (UTC)

Scientific materialism
Should António Damásio be listed under the category of materialists, as he seems to reject the notion of Dualism? 69.205.163.163 05:19, 1 September 2007 (UTC)

WikiProject class rating
This article was automatically assessed because at least one WikiProject had rated the article as start, and the rating on other projects was brought up to start class. BetacommandBot 03:46, 10 November 2007 (UTC)

Pronunciation
What's the deal with the multiple pronunciations? --1000Faces (talk) 23:43, 18 November 2007 (UTC)

The accent marks on his name are incorrect. There should be no accent marks over the first "o" in Antonio nor over the second "a" in Damasio. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Damasiowiki (talk • contribs) 18:03, 4 January 2011 (UTC)

Requested move

 * The following discussion is an archived discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. No further edits should be made to this section. 

The result of the move request was: page moved. ukexpat (talk) 17:58, 5 January 2011 (UTC)

António Damásio → Antonio Damasio — Per the editor above. None of the published books nor faculty sites appear to use accents. Target page is currently a redirect here. Active Banana    (bananaphone  19:25, 4 January 2011 (UTC)
 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

I am Dr. Damasio's assistant at USC, and with all due respect, his name is NOT ACCENTED. He dropped the accents from his name when he became a US citizen in the late 1970's. He has not published with accents in his name since that time. The only times his name appears accented is in a foreign-language translation of his work, where appropriate. PLEASE REMOVE THE ACCENTS FROM HIS NAME IN THE TITLE PAGE. I have taken care of removing them in the text. ADamasioAssist (talk) 21:24, 1 December 2011 (UTC)Pamela Mc Neff Smith/Brain and Creativity Institute/USC
 * If he stills keeps his Portuguese nationality, his Portuguese documents have his name accented. --Jgpestana (talk) 14:34, 6 June 2015 (UTC)
 * What, you're trying to tell his assistant how he should spell his name -- and four years later??? EEng (talk) 19:14, 6 June 2015 (UTC)
 * As you'll see elsewhere on this page, I keep trying to remind people of this, but some editors are very fussily insistent that they know what they're talking about. I'll find someone who can take care of the move (and maybe "salt" the accented article title i.e. make it impossible to recreate an article titled with the accented name) -- but I'm very busy just now and it will be a week or more before I can get to this.  Thanks for bringing it up again. EEng (talk) 02:38, 2 December 2011 (UTC)
 * After only 8 months and 3 minutes, this has finally been done (including preventing know-it-alls from renaming the article back to the with-accents title) -- 8 months for me to get around to asking OrangeMike, and 3 minutes for him to do it. He probably could have done it in 2 minutes but he just seems to have no sense of urgency. EEng (talk) 23:11, 16 August 2012 (UTC)

Name
Well, it is António Damásio. Not only do the original covers of the books have the accents, neither 'Antonio' or 'Damasio' are Portuguese names. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.84.140.148 (talk) 00:30, 14 January 2011 (UTC)
 * Well, not according to Damasio himself, it appears.   EEng (talk) 07:34, 17 September 2011 (UTC)
 * Nevertheless, a brief mention of the Portuguese version of his name merits inclusion in the article. Alternative forms of a person's name remain "perennially" relevant. This is common Wikipedia practice. --Omnipaedista (talk) 03:13, 30 April 2014 (UTC)

Edit request on 21 November 2012
Please add,  , and   to António Damásio. Its talk page is fully protected, which is why I must ask here. Gorobay (talk) 13:11, 21 November 2012 (UTC)
 * Yes check.svg Done — Mr. Stradivarius  (have a chat) 13:31, 21 November 2012 (UTC)

Protected edit request on 6 June 2015
The correct title is António Damásio. Antonio Damasio should redirect to António Damásio page and not the opposite.

Jgpestana (talk) 14:24, 6 June 2015 (UTC)
 * Red question icon with gradient background.svg Not done: it's not clear what changes you want to be made. Please mention the specific changes in a "change X to Y" format. -- Red rose64 (talk) 16:43, 6 June 2015 (UTC)
 * I am asking to move Antonio Damasio to (accented), i.e., make António Damásio the actual article title and maintain Antonio Damasio as a redirect page. Why? Because António Damásio's birth name is António Rosa Damásio (accented; actually the unaccented form of António, for example, isn't even accepted as a name in Portugal) and he still has Portuguese nationality (together with the American one) as it is mentioned in the article itself. If his first nationality was the Portuguese one and he still has it (and both António and Damásio are Portuguese names), and assuming he only registered as an American under the name Antonio Damasio (without accent marks) and publishes in the English-speaking world with it for practical reasons, the English Wikipedia article title should be António Damásio. Antonio Damasio should be only a redirect page as what happens with article titles in other languages that use diacritical marks:  redirects to Jérôme Bonaparte,  redirects to Principality of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel,  redirects to Lüneburg and  redirects to Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg, not the opposite. --Jgpestana (talk) 18:53, 6 June 2015 (UTC)
 * Per WP:COMMONNAME we use the name by which the subject is commonly known in English (this being the English Wikipedia). We don't care what his passport says, or why he chose to spell his name a certain way when he "registered as American" (whatever that means). We only care how he's best known, and that's without accents. Huge amounts of time are spent on Wikipedia obsession about nonsense trivia like this, so please give it a rest.  EEng (talk) 19:14, 6 June 2015 (UTC)
 * If the only problem is the article title, Red information icon with gradient background.svg Not done: it's a WP:RM matter, not a WP:PER matter. But I see that the article title has already been discussed further up this page. -- Red rose64 (talk) 21:08, 6 June 2015 (UTC)

Missing Awards mentions - Edit Request
Several awards seem to be missing, particularly more notable ones such as the Prince of Asturias Prize (2005) and the Honda Foundation Prize (2010). Both should be added to the text and under 'Notable Awards' in the list on the right-hand side. Nunezcm (talk) 18:35, 2 December 2015 (UTC)nunezcm

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A Commons file used on this page has been nominated for speedy deletion
The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page has been nominated for speedy deletion: You can see the reason for deletion at the file description page linked above. —Community Tech bot (talk) 22:51, 22 May 2019 (UTC)
 * Damasio Antonio photo for ADN Beatrice.jpg

Actual biographical content, please
1. When and where was he born? 2. Where did he grow up and go to school? 3. Where did he do his undergraduate studies? 4. When did he become a U.S. citizen? 5. When did he come to the U. of Iowa? 6. When and why did he leave Iowa? -- Orange Mike &#124;  Talk  19:59, 2 November 2021 (UTC)