Imagine, for example, birds. When they look out at the world, they have a sense that they are alive. If they are in pain, they can do something about it. If they have hunger or thirst, they can satisfy that. It's this basic feeling that there is life ticking away inside of you.
More Quotes by Antonio Damasio
There is no such thing as a disembodied mind. The mind is implanted in the brain, and the brain is implanted in the body.
To me, body and mind are different aspects of specific biological processes.
When we talk about emotion, we really talk about a collection of behaviors that are produced by the brain. You can look at a person in the throes of an emotion and observe changes in the face, in the body posture, in the coloration of the skin and so on.
Interestingly enough, not all feelings result from the body's reaction to external stimuli. Sometimes changes are purely simulated in the brain maps.
Writing long hand is the last refuge. One needs the time it takes to put pencil to paper and let it run along the ruled line.
Rather than being a luxury, emotions are a very intelligent way of driving an organism toward certain outcomes.