Interestingly enough, not all feelings result from the body's reaction to external stimuli. Sometimes changes are purely simulated in the brain maps.
Antonio DamasioRead
In 'Self Comes to Mind' I pay a lot of attention to simple creatures without brains or minds, because those 'cartooned abstractions of who we are' operate on precisely the same principles that we do.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote suggests that even simple creatures exhibit behaviors that mirror human principles despite lacking complex minds.
In this quote, Antonio Damasio reflects on the fundamental similarities between humans and simpler life forms. He implies that our behaviors and reactions are governed by underlying principles shared across species, highlighting that consciousness and complexity are not prerequisites for exhibiting fundamental traits of life, such as survival and interaction. By studying these 'simple creatures,' we gain insight into our own nature and the essence of existence itself.
Themes
ConsciousnessBehaviorPrinciplesPhilosophyNature
In practice
Example use cases
In a presentation on consciousness, you could use this quote to discuss the evolution of mind.
More from Antonio Damasio
All quotes →The autobiographical self has prompted extended memory, reasoning, imagination, creativity and language. And out of that came the instruments of culture - religions, justice, trade, the arts, science, technology.
Antonio DamasioRead
Consciousness permits us to develop the instruments of culture - morality and justice, religion, art, economics and politics, science and technology. Those instruments allow us some measure of freedom in the confrontation with nature.
Antonio DamasioRead
...I sense that stepping into the light is also a powerful metaphor for consciousness, for the birth of the knowing mind, for the simple and yet momentous coming of the sense of self into the world of the mental.
Antonio DamasioRead
When you deal with something like compassion for physical pain, which we know is very, very old in evolution - we can find evidence for it in nonhuman species - the brain processes it at a faster speed. Compassion for mental pain took many seconds longer.
Antonio DamasioRead
We do not merely perceive objects and hold thoughts in our minds: all our perceptions and thought processes are felt. All have a distinctive component that announces an unequivocal link between images and the existence of life in our organism.
Antonio DamasioRead
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