Joy, sorrow, jealousy and awe - these and other feelings are the stuff of our daily lives.

Presumed to be too private for science to explain and not to be essential for comprehending human rationality and understanding, they have largely been ignored. But not by the great seventeenth-century Dutch philosopher Spinoza. And not by Antonio Damasio.

In this book Dr. Damasio draws on his innovative research and on his experience with neurological patients to examine how feelings and the emotions that underlie them support the governance of human affairs.