Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

If Economic Theory Met Neurosciences: Examining Damasio’s Cognitive Somatic Marker

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Decision Economics: Minds, Machines, and their Society (DECON 2020)

Part of the book series: Studies in Computational Intelligence ((SCI,volume 990))

Included in the following conference series:

  • 322 Accesses

Abstract

The paper examines the cognitive “somatic marker”, as proposed by the neuroscientist Antonio Damasio. The aim is to demonstrate how the submerged world of the body and emotions contributes to delineating a more integrated rationality, detached from the pretensions of perfection and distant from the rationality of the economic theory of rational choice. The idea of a pure, Kantian, formal, and abstract rationality, and the cold strategy it pursues, despite seeming to be a source of reasonable decisions, appears to be closer to those of patients with frontal lobe alterations. The omission of the emotional sphere and the absolutisation of “high reason” in decision-making lead to decisions focused on the present, short-sighted with respect to the future and subject to the dictatorship of immediate reward. Effective decisions, on the other hand, are those that allow us to reach a functional equilibrium with the world (homeostasis), maintaining relationship continuity with the environment, an accumulation of unexpressed knowledge of which man is the repository in its entirety as Brain-Minded Body and Body-Minded Brain.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 169.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 219.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  1. Damasio, A.R.: Descartes’ Error. Emotion, Reason and the Human Brain. Avon Books, New York (1994)

    Google Scholar 

  2. Hoffmeyer, J.: Signs of Meaning in the Universe. Indiana University Press, Bloomington (1996)

    Google Scholar 

  3. Cobley, P.: Cultural Implications of Biosemiotics. Springer, Dordrecht (2016).https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-024-0858-4

  4. Portmann, A.: Die Zeit im Leben des Organismen. In: Biologie und Geist, pp. 150–173. Suhrkamp, Frankfurt (1968)

    Google Scholar 

  5. Bateson, G.: Mind and Nature a Necessary Unity. Dotton, New York (1979)

    Google Scholar 

  6. Gauthier, D.: Morals by Agreement. Oxford University Press, Oxford (1986)

    Google Scholar 

  7. Damasio, A.R., Tranel, D., Damasio, H.C.: Somatic markers and the guidance of behaviour: theory and preliminary testing. In: Levin, H.S., Eisenberg, H.M., Benton, A.L. (eds.) Frontal Lobe Function and Dysfunction, Ch. 11, pp. 217–229. Oxford University Press, Oxford (1991)

    Google Scholar 

  8. Damasio, A.: Preface. In: Descartes’ Error. Emotion, Reason and the Human Brain, pp. IX–XIV. Pinguin Books, London (1994)

    Google Scholar 

  9. Langlois, : Cognitive comparative advantage and the organization of work: lessons from Herbert Simon’s vision of the future. J. Econ. Psychol. 24(2), 167–187 (2003)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Linquist, S., Bartol, J.: Two myths about somatic marker. Br. J. Sci. 64(3), 1–35 (2012)

    Google Scholar 

  11. Hinson, J.M., Jameson, T.L., Whitney, P.: Somatic marker, working memory and decision-making. Cogn. Affect. Behav. Neurosci. 2(4), 341–353 (2002)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Aristotle: Nicomachean Ethics. Book II. University of Chicago Press, Chicago (2012)

    Google Scholar 

  13. Bechara, A., Damasio, H., Damasio, A.: Emotion decision making and the orbitofrontal cortex. Cereb. Cortex 10(3), 295–307 (2000)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Damasio, A.R., Damasio, H., Christen, Y. (eds.): Neurobiology of Decision-making. Springer, Berlin-Heidelberg (1996). https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2012.00056

    Book  Google Scholar 

  15. Bechara, A., Damasio, A., Damasio, H., Anderson, S.W.: Insensitivity to future consequences following damage to human prefrontal cortex. In: Hyman, S. (ed.) The Science of Mental Health, vol. 7. Personality and Personality Disorder. Routledge, New York-London (2001)

    Google Scholar 

  16. Reimann, M., Bechara, A.: The somatic marker framework as a neurological theory of decision-making: review, conceptual comparisons, and future neuroeconomics research. J. Econ. Psichol. 31(5), 767–776 (2010)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Weizsäcker, V.V.: Der Gestaltkreis. Theorie der Einheit This Wahrnehmen und Bewegen. Gesammelte Schriften, vol. 4. Suhrkamp, Frankfurt (1997)

    Google Scholar 

  18. Damasio, A., Damasio, H.: Exploring the concept of homeostasis and considering its implications for economics. J. Econ. Behav. Organ. 126, 125–129 (2016)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Varela, F., Thompson, E., Rosch, E.: The Embodied Mind Cognitive Science and Human Experience. The MIT Press, Cambridge (1993)

    Google Scholar 

  20. Slovic, P., Finucane, M., Peters, E., MacGregor, D.G.: Rational actors or rational fools: implications of the affect heuristic for behavioral economics. J. Socio Econ. 31, 329–342 (2002)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Weizsäcker, V.V.: Pathosophie. Suhkamp, Frankfurt a.M (2005)

    Google Scholar 

  22. Bateson, G.: Steps to an Ecology of Mind. Jason Aronson, Northvale-New Jersey-London (1972)

    Google Scholar 

  23. Barnes, A., Thagard, P.: Emotional decision. In: Cottrell, G.W. (ed.) Proceeding of the Eighteenth Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Mahwah (1996)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Chieti-Pescara, Via dei Vestini, n. 31, Chieti, Italy

    Oreste Tolone

Authors
  1. Oreste Tolone
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Oreste Tolone .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of PPEQS, Section of Economics and Quantitative Methods, University of Chieti-Pescara, Pescara, Pescara, Italy

    Edgardo Bucciarelli

  2. Department of Economics, National Chengchi University, Taipei, Taiwan

    Shu-Heng Chen

  3. AIR Institute - Deep Tech Lab, University of Valladolid, Valladolid, Spain

    Juan M. Corchado

  4. Department of Business and Economics Adminstration, University of Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain

    Javier Parra D.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2021 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this paper

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this paper

Tolone, O. (2021). If Economic Theory Met Neurosciences: Examining Damasio’s Cognitive Somatic Marker. In: Bucciarelli, E., Chen, SH., Corchado, J.M., Parra D., J. (eds) Decision Economics: Minds, Machines, and their Society. DECON 2020. Studies in Computational Intelligence, vol 990. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-75583-6_4

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation