I've read many of Damasio's earlier books, back when I was a cognitive scientist, and was expecting to enjoy and learn from this quite a lot, but I ended up rather disappointed. Not by the theory -- Damasio's feelings-based explanation for consciousness is fascinating and seems likely to be on the right track -- but by this book itself. It's an under-edited collection of, essentially, footnotes. Anecdotes and attempts to explain his theory in different ways, without a lot of structure. It'd be nearly impossible to follow if you hadn't read, say, The Feeling of What Happens. Perhaps worth reading for a Damasio scholar or completist, but maybe not necessary otherwise...

Snoozefest and it's all still speculation. We don't even know if a lot of this is correct yet.

Starting from the very beginning, Damasio moves from being to feeling to knowing. All in a very dense and short book, whose equally short chapters can mislead the beginner reader. Although I had already read other books by Damasio in the past, this volume, I do not know if it is because it is extremely concise or because it explores new issues such as A.I., seemed to me the most difficult among his books, although there are almost no references to obscure parts of the brain or molecules too complex to be written.

Partendo proprio dagli inizi, Damasio passa dall'essere al sentire per arrivare poi al sapere. IL tutto in un libro densissimo e breve, i cui capitoli altrettanto brevi possono trarre in inganno il lettore principiante. Per quanto poi io avessi giá letto altri libri di Damasio in passato, questo volume, non so se perché estremamente conciso o se perché esplora tematiche anche nuove come l'A.I. mi é sembrato il piú difficile tra i suoi, nonostante non ci siano praticamente quasi mai riferimenti ad oscure parti del cervello o a molecole troppo complesse per essere scritte.

I received from the Publisher a complimentary digital advanced review copy of the book in exchange for a honest review.