There have been many ambitious and important books on the problem of consciousness in the past few years. None has quite the philosophical sophistication and neurophysical knowledge of this one. One of the world’s leading experts on the neurophysiology of emotion, professor Damasio shows how our consciousness developed out of the development of emotion brilliantly wide ranging, with fascinating case-studies, the book presents a humane and subtle view of the facility that makes us most profoundly human.