Fascinating and important material, though it deserves better exposition.
A leading neurologist and critically praised science writer (The Feeling of What Happens, 1999, etc.) argues that research on human emotions supports the 17th-century philosopher’s conclusions about the mind-body problem.
Damasio (Neurology/Univ. of Iowa Medical Center) begins by describing his visit to Spinoza's home and grave in the Hague. Spinoza's ideas, the author reminds us, were so radical that they were suppressed for decades after his death in 1677, though they survived to be picked up by Enlightenment thinkers and to influence many modern scientists. At the center of his philosophy was the assertion that the mind, and by implication the soul, was not separate from the body but intimately connected to it. At this point, Damasio launches into a detailed summary of the neurological evidence that emotions and feelings, which he carefully distinguishes, arise directly from the brain's imaging of the body’s physical states. Studies of patients with injuries to discrete areas of the brain indicate that specific sites are responsible for specific emotional states, he notes. Moreover, the chemical and physical events leading to feelings can often be traced with considerable accuracy. Unfortunately, the author’s account of these potentially revolutionary investigations is highly abstract and couched in reader-unfriendly jargon. The evidence seems to be that even such exalted emotions as altruism and civic responsibility can be accounted for by physical processes based in the evolutionary needs of the human organism to survive and reproduce. The feeling of contentment that follows ethical behavior is similar to those called up by acts that directly benefit the organism. Having made these points, the narrative returns to an account of Spinoza's life, with particular emphasis on his estrangement from the Portuguese Sephardic community in the Netherlands and his impact on later thinkers. The Spinoza sections flow smoothly; this would have been far more valuable if the neurological sections were as clear and engaging. Even so, it will reward close study.
Fascinating and important material, though it deserves better exposition.Pub Date: Feb. 3, 2003
ISBN: 0-15-100557-5
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2002
BOOK REVIEW
A rare treat: cutting-edge science combined with a perceptive portrait of the people who perform it. Dressler (Astronomy/Carnegie Institution) was one of a team that set out to perform a survey of elliptical galaxies and ended by revising a fundamental axiom of modern cosmology. The ``Seven Samurai,'' as they became known on the release of their results, combined expertise in observation and theory, bringing an unusual level of astronomical talent to their task. Dressler gives brief biographies of himself and the other team members and devotes considerable space to detailing their personal interactions over the course of the project, providing an unusually candid look at not only what scientists really do, but how they feel about it and about each other. As the data from their survey accumulated, the team's initial goal of discovering clues to the absolute magnitude of distant galaxies began to fade as they realized that a large number of galaxies were traveling at unexpectedly high velocities—1,000 km per hour or more—that could only be explained by the attraction of a huge mass. Equally important, this discovery forced a reconsideration of the assumption that the velocities of distant galaxies are almost entirely due to the expansion of the universe and directly related to their distances from Earth. The implications of the discovery, and its theoretical underpinnings, take up much of the last part of the book, a generally clear overview of current thinking on the origins of the universe. A readable and engaging glimpse behind the facade of contemporary science; Dressler does for astronomy what James D. Watson's The Double Helix did for molecular biology. (31 photos, illustrations, charts, and graphs) (Library of Science and Astronomy Book Club main selection)
Pub Date: Oct. 16, 1994
ISBN: 0-394-58899-1
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1994
A hunt-and-peck collection of 30 pieces assembled to benefit Share Our Strength, a group dedicated to feeding the hungry. Shore (editor, Mysteries of Life and the Universe, 1992) has managed to gather a host of fine nature writers, but with mixed results. Al Gore's flimsy introduction leads with ``John Muir once wrote''—you can almost hear the snores rising off the page. But then there is Diane Ackerman's smart take on summer (``Summer''), with its bright and insightful appreciation of birds. The good and the not-so-good trade punches: Natalie Angier tries to get poetic as she recalls an urban childhood grappling with nature (``Natural Disasters''), but she is no Charles Simic, and the result is Kansas-flat and without humor. Then Edward Hoagland shines even as his eyesight dims (``Mind's Eyes''), and in his melancholy way he gathers a special sense of the land: learning to distinguish trees by the feel of their bark, finding walking ``such a puzzle as to be either exciting or tearful.'' Ted Kerasote (``Logging'') takes the adage ``An unexamined life isn't worth living'' and beats it to death; here it is logging rather than hunting (see Bloodties, 1993) he picks apart, but, Ted, an overexamined life gets darned boring. Thankfully, Karen Pryor delivers an extraordinary throng of birds (``A Gathering of Birds'') of many different feathers which gathered on a bush next to which she sat and stared at her—a bunch of birds out-humaning her, as it were. And so it goes. Half of the contributions are worth the trouble; .500 isn't a bad batting average, but it's not a great percentage when the quality of the authors is considered. Worth the price of admission all the same for the 15 crack nature essays gathered under one roof. (b&w illustrations, not seen)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-15-100080-8
Page Count: 356
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1994
BOOK REVIEW
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