Essay 1
In 1994, Antonio Damasio published a widely discussed book titled Descartes’ Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain. Since then, he has continued to explore this topic. For the purposes of this assignment, please watch the following clip from a TV interview he gave in 2017. (The viewing time is about 13.5 minutes, so it’s not excessively long. Make sure that you watch the entire clip.)
The provided link should open directly just by clicking on it. In case it doesn’t, you can paste the web address into your search bar, hit ‘return’, and it should open.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5GFB5NjfYw
Based on this clip, please do the following. Write a mini dialogue between Descartes and Damasio, formatted like an interview. Damasio plays the role of the interviewer (and challenger) and Descartes is the special guest.
You can skip the ‘welcome’ part and begin with Descartes giving his opening statement in which he introduces and spells out his notion of the “thinking thing.” (For example, Descartes could start by saying “Thank you for having me. Well, let me get right to the heart of the matter and …” or something like that.)
Then comes Damasio putting critical pressure on a particular detail or details in Descartes’ account. In formulating Damasio’s challenge, you should draw on the provided clip.
After that, Descartes gets a chance to reply.
Spend one paragraph on each speaker’s turn (i.e., 3 paragraphs for this part).
You don’t have to use direct quotations for the two parties. Paraphrasing will be more efficient. Yet, when you let Descartes speak, please provide a page reference in parenthesis to indicate which passage in our assigned Descartes reading you are drawing from. Similarly, when you let Damasio speak, please provide a time marker in parenthesis to indicate your reference. For example: (Clip, 10:32). I picked this time randomly, just to illustrate. Overall, your essay should contain at least two page references for Descartes, and two time markers for Damasio.
Conclude with a “viewer’s response” (1 paragraph) in your own voice, in which you briefly state what stood out to you as the most important factor (detail, observation, finding) and why this makes you lean more toward Descartes’ or Damasio’s side.
So the overall structure is:
Descartes’ opening statement (1 paragraph)
Damasio’s criticism/challenge (1 paragraph)
Descartes’ reply (1 paragraph)
Your viewer’s response (1 paragraph)
Format:
Expected total length: 4 paragraphs (min. 400 words; max. 600 words), typed, double-spaced, Times New Roman, size 12. At the top left, write the basic course information and your name. No separate cover page necessary. Please include a word count at the end, or points may be taken off. In your word count, only include the text of the interview you composed (not the instructions or prompt). Simply write “Words: ###” beneath your text. Title “Descartes and Damasio,” you can choose your own subtitle.
Note:
For this assignment, please refer only to our assigned Descartes reading (i.e., the PDFs provided on our course site) and the provided clip featuring Damasio. No other textual or web-based sources are to be used. Our plagiarism policy stated in the syllabus applies to all assignments in this course!
Submission:
Upload your text as a regular Word document (docx)