A review by mmarvin01
The Strange Order of Things: Life, Feeling, and the Making of Cultures by António R. Damásio

3.0

While many parts of this book resonated with me, I found it a bit repetitive. The author was clearly in his element when writing about the human experience, but the early chapters about evolution and the later parts of the book regarding the cultural development meandered and lacked convincing examples.

What sticks with me most is the notion that feelings and emotions are not the same thing. Feelings are bodily reactions (to internal or external stimuli) and emotions are the mental experiences relating to the feelings... but this is apparently an aside from Damasio’s other book “Looking for Spinoza”.