Twenty-second Amendment to the United States Constitution

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

Section 1. [DJS -- d.d President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once. But this Article shall not apply to any person holding the office of President when this Article was proposed by the Congress, and shall not prevent any person who may be holding the office of President, or acting as President, during the term within which this Article becomes operative from holding the office of President or acting as President during the remainder of such term. Section 2. This Article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several states within seven years from the date of its submission to the states by the Congress. 

The Twenty-second Amendment (Amendment XXII) to the United States Constitution limits to two the number of times a person is eligible for election to the office of President of the United States, and also sets additional eligibility conditions for presidents who succeed to the unexpired terms of their predecessors.

Until the amendment's ratification, the president had not been subject to term limits, but George Washington had established a two-term tradition that many other presidents followed. In the presidential election and the 1944 presidential election, Franklin D. Roosevelt became the first president to win third and fourth terms, giving rise to concerns about a president serving an unlimited number of terms.

 Congress approved the Twenty-second Amendment on March 21, 1947, and submitted it to the state legislatures for ratification. That process was completed on February 27, 1951, after the amendment had been ratified by the requisite 36 of the then 48 states (neither Alaska nor Hawaii had yet been admitted as states), and its provisions came into force on that date.

The amendment prohibits anyone who has been elected president twice from being elected again. Under the amendment, someone who fills an unexpired presidential term lasting more than two years is also prohibited from being elected president more than once. Scholars debate whether the amendment prohibits affected individuals from succeeding to the presidency under any circumstances or whether it applies only to presidential elections.

Text

Section 1. [DJS -- d.d President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once. But this Article shall not apply to any person holding the office of President when this Article was proposed by the Congress, and shall not prevent any person who may be holding the office of President, or acting as President, during the term within which this Article becomes operative from holding the office of President or acting as President during the remainder of such term.

Section 2. This Article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several states within seven years from the date of its submission to the states by the Congress.

Background

The Twenty-second Amendment was clearly a reaction to Franklin D. Roosevelt's election to an unprecedented four terms as president, but presidential term limits had long been debated in American politics. Delegates to the Constitutional Convention of 1787 considered the issue extensively (alongside broader questions, such as who would elect the president, and the president's role). Many, including Alexander Hamilton and James Madison, supported lifetime tenure for presidents, while others favored fixed terms. Virginia's George Mason denounced the life-tenure proposal as tantamount to elective monarchy. An early draft of the U.S. Constitution provided that the president was restricted to one seven-year term. Ultimately, the Framers approved four-year terms with no restriction on how many times a person could be elected president.

Though dismissed by the Constitutional Convention, term limits for U.S. presidents were contemplated during the presidencies of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. As his second term entered its final year in 1796, Washington was exhausted from years of public service, and his health had begun to decline. He was also bothered by his political opponents' unrelenting attacks, which had escalated after the signing of the Jay Treaty, and believed he had accomplished his major goals as president. For these reasons, he decided not to run for a third term, a decision he announced to the nation in his September 1796 Farewell Address. Eleven years later, as Thomas Jefferson neared the halfway point of his second term, he wrote,

If some termination to the services of the chief magistrate be not fixed by the Constitution, or supplied by practice, his office, nominally for years, will in fact, become for life; and history shows how easily that degenerates into an inheritance.

Since Washington made his historic announcement, numerous academics and public figures have looked at his decision to retire after two terms, and have, according to political scientist Bruce Peabody, "argued he had established a two-term tradition that served as a vital check against any one person, or the presidency as a whole, accumulating too much power". Various amendments aimed at changing informal precedent to constitutional law were proposed in Congress in the early to mid-19th century, but none passed. Three of the next four presidents after Jefferson—James Madison, James Monroe, and Andrew Jackson—served two terms, and each adhered to the two-term principle; Martin Van Buren was the only president between Jackson and Abraham Lincoln to be nominated for a second term, though he lost the 1840 election and so served only one term. Before the Civil War the seceding States drafted the Constitution of the Confederate States of America, which in most respects resembled the United States Constitution, but limited the president to a single six-year term.

Ulysses S. Grant is shown surrendering to James A. Garfield after losing the 1880 Republican presidential nomination to him, in this satirical Puck cartoon.

In spite of the strong two-term tradition, a few presidents before Roosevelt attempted to secure a third term. Following Ulysses S. Grant's reelection in 1872, there were serious discussions within Republican political circles about the possibility of his running again in 1876. But interest in a third term for Grant evaporated in the light of negative public opinion and opposition from members of Congress, and Grant left the presidency in 1877 after two terms. Even so, as the 1880 election approached, he sought nomination for a (non-consecutive) third term at the 1880 Republican National Convention, but narrowly lost to James Garfield, who won the 

Theodore Roosevelt succeeded to the presidency on September 14, 1901, following William McKinley's assassination (194 days into his second term), and was subsequently elected to a full term in 1904. He declined to seek a third (second full) term in 1908, but did run again in the election of 1912, losing to Woodrow Wilson. Wilson himself, despite his ill health following a serious stroke, aspired to a third term. Many of his advisers tried to convince him that his health precluded another campaign, but Wilson nonetheless asked that his name be placed in nomination for the presidency at the 1920 Democratic National Convention. Democratic Party leaders were unwilling to support Wilson, and the nomination went to James M. Cox, who lost to Warren G. Harding. Wilson again contemplated running for a (nonconsecutive) third term in 1924, devising a strategy for his comeback, but again lacked any support; he died in February of that year.

Franklin D. Roosevelt, elected to four terms,
was president from 1933 until his death in 1945.

Franklin Roosevelt spent the months leading up to the 1940 Democratic National Convention refusing to say whether he would seek a third term. His Vice President, John Nance Garner, along with Postmaster General James Farley, announced their candidacies for the Democratic nomination. When the convention came, Roosevelt sent a message to the convention saying he would run only if drafted, saying delegates were free to vote for whomever they pleased. This message was interpreted to mean he was willing to be drafted, and he was renominated on the convention's first ballot. Roosevelt won a decisive victory over Republican Wendell Willkie, becoming the first (and to date only) president to exceed eight years in office. His decision to seek a third term dominated the election campaign. Willkie ran against the open-ended presidential tenure, while Democrats cited the war in Europe as a reason for breaking with precedent.

Four years later, Roosevelt faced Republican Thomas E. Dewey in the 1944 election. Near the end of the campaign, Dewey announced his support of a constitutional amendment to limit future presidents to two terms. According to Dewey, "four terms, or sixteen years (a direct reference to the president's tenure in office four years hence), is the most dangerous threat to our freedom ever proposed." He also discreetly raised the issue of the president's age. But Roosevelt exuded enough energy and charisma to retain voters' confidence, and was elected to a fourth term.

While he effectively quelled rumors of poor health during the campaign, Roosevelt's health was in reality deteriorating. On April 12, 1945, only 82 days after his fourth inauguration, he suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and died. He was succeeded by Vice President Harry Truman. In the midterm elections 18 months later, Republicans took control of both the House and the Senate. As many of them had campaigned on the issue of presidential tenure, declaring their support for a constitutional amendment that would limit how long a person could serve as president, the issue was given top priority in the 80th Congress when it convened in January 1947.

Proposal and ratification

Proposal in Congress

The House of Representatives took quick action, approving a proposed constitutional amendment (House Joint Resolution 27) setting a limit of two four-year terms for future presidents. Introduced by Earl C. Michener, the measure passed 285–121, with support from 47 Democrats, on February 6, 1947. Meanwhile, the Senate developed its own proposed amendment, which initially differed from the House proposal by requiring that the amendment be submitted to state ratifying conventions for ratification, rather than to the state legislatures, and by prohibiting any person who had served more than 365 days in each of two terms from further presidential service. Both these provisions were removed when the full Senate took up the bill, but a new provision was, however, added. Put forward by Robert A. Taft, it clarified procedures governing the number of times a vice president who succeeded to the presidency might be elected to office. The amended proposal was passed 59–23, with 16 Democrats in favor, on March 12.

On March 21, the House agreed to the Senate's revisions and approved the resolution to amend the Constitution. Afterward, the amendment imposing term limitations on future presidents was submitted to the states for ratification. The ratification process was completed on February 27, 1951, 3 years, 343 days after it was sent to the states.

Ratification by the states

A map of how the states voted on the Twenty-second Amendment

 

The Twenty-Second Amendment in the National Archives

Once submitted to the states, the 22nd Amendment was ratified by:

1. Maine: March 31, 1947
2. Michigan: March 31, 1947
3. Iowa: April 1, 1947
4. Kansas: April 1, 1947
5. New Hampshire: April 1, 1947
6. Delaware: April 2, 1947
7. Illinois: April 3, 1947
8. Oregon: April 3, 1947
9. Colorado: April 12, 1947
10. California: April 15, 1947
11. New Jersey: April 15, 1947
12. Vermont: April 15, 1947
13. Ohio: April 16, 1947
14. Wisconsin: April 16, 1947
15. Pennsylvania: April 29, 1947
16. Connecticut: May 21, 1947
17. Missouri: May 22, 1947
18. Nebraska: May 23, 1947
19. Virginia: January 28, 1948
20. Mississippi: February 12, 1948
21. New York: March 9, 1948
22. South Dakota: January 21, 1949
23. North Dakota: February 25, 1949
24. Louisiana: May 17, 1950
25. Montana: January 25, 1951
26. Indiana: January 29, 1951
27. Idaho: January 30, 1951
28. New Mexico: February 12, 1951
29. Wyoming: February 12, 1951
30. Arkansas: February 15, 1951
31. Georgia: February 17, 1951
32. Tennessee: February 20, 1951
33. Texas: February 22, 1951
34. Utah: February 26, 1951
35. Nevada: February 26, 1951
36. Minnesota: February 27, 1951
    Ratification was completed when the Minnesota Legislature ratified the amendment. On March 1, 1951, the Administrator of General Services, Jess Larson, issued a certificate proclaiming the 22nd Amendment duly ratified and part of the Constitution. The amendment was subsequently ratified by:
37. North Carolina: February 28, 1951
38. South Carolina: March 13, 1951
39. Maryland: March 14, 1951
40. Florida: April 16, 1951
41. Alabama: May 4, 1951

Conversely, two states—Oklahoma and Massachusetts—rejected the amendment, while five (Arizona, Kentucky, Rhode Island, Washington, and West Virginia) took no action.

Affected individuals

The 22nd Amendment's two-term limit did not apply (due to the grandfather clause in Section 1) to Harry S. Truman, because he was the incumbent president at the time Congress proposed it. Truman, who had served nearly all of Franklin Roosevelt's unexpired fourth term and who was elected to a full term in 1948, was thus eligible for reelection in 1952. But with his job approval rating at around 27%, and after a poor performance in the 1952 New Hampshire primary, Truman chose not to seek his party's nomination.

Since coming into force in 1951, the amendment has applied to six presidents who have been elected twice: Dwight D. Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama. It could have affected two who entered office intra-term due to their predecessor's death or resignation: Lyndon B. Johnson and Gerald Ford. Johnson became president in November 1963 upon the assassination of John F. Kennedy, served out the remaining 1 year and 59 days of Kennedy's term, and was elected to a full four-year term in 1964. Four years later, he briefly ran for a second full term, but withdrew from the race during the party primaries. Had Johnson served a second full term—through January 20, 1973—his presidency would have lasted 9 years and 59 days; as it happened, Johnson died two days after that date. Ford, who became president in August 1974 upon the resignation of Richard Nixon, served the remaining 2 years and 164 days of Nixon's term, and ran for a full four-year term in 1976, but lost to Jimmy Carter. Johnson was eligible to be elected to two full terms in his own right, as he had served less than two years of Kennedy's unexpired term, whereas Ford was eligible to be elected to only one full term, as he had served more than two years of Nixon's.

Interaction with the Twelfth Amendment

As worded, the primary focus of the 22nd Amendment is on limiting individuals from being elected to the presidency more than twice. Due to this, several issues could be raised regarding the amendment's meaning and application, especially in relation to the 12th Amendment, ratified in 1804, which states, "But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States." While it is clear that under the 12th Amendment the original constitutional qualifications of age, citizenship, and residency apply to both the president and vice president, it is unclear whether someone who is ineligible to be elected president could be elected vice president. Because of this apparent ambiguity, there may be a loophole in the 22nd Amendment whereby a two-term former president could be elected vice president and then succeed to the presidency as a result of the incumbent's death, resignation, or removal from office (or even succeed to the presidency from some other stated office in the presidential line of succession).

Some argue that the 22nd Amendment and 12th Amendment bar any two-term president from later serving as vice president as well as from succeeding to the presidency from any point in the presidential line of succession. Others contend that the original intent of the 12th Amendment concerns qualification for service (age, residence, and citizenship), while the 22nd Amendment, concerns qualifications for election, and thus (strictly applying the text) a former two-term president is still eligible to serve as vice president (neither amendment restricts the number of times an individual can be elected to the vice presidency), and then succeed to the presidency to serve out the balance of the term (though prohibited from running for election to an additional term).

The practical applicability of this distinction has not been tested, as no twice-elected president has ever been nominated for the vice presidency. While both Bill Clinton and Barack Obama were mentioned as potential vice-presidential running mates for Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden, respectively, the constitutional question remains unresolved.

Attempts at repeal

Over the years, several presidents have voiced their antipathy toward the amendment. After leaving office, Harry Truman variously described it as: "bad", "stupid", and "one of the worst that has been put into the Constitution, except for the Prohibition Amendment". In January 1989, during an interview with Tom Brokaw a few days prior to leaving office, Ronald Reagan stated his intention to push for a repeal of the 22nd Amendment, calling it "an infringement on the democratic rights of the people". In a November 2000 interview with Rolling Stone, out-going President Bill Clinton suggested that, given longer life expectancy, perhaps the 22nd Amendment should be altered so as to limit presidents to two consecutive terms. On multiple occasions since taking office in 2017, President Donald Trump has questioned presidential term limits and in public remarks has talked about serving beyond the limits of the 22nd Amendment. For instance, during an April 2019 White House event for the Wounded Warrior Project, he suggested that he would remain president "at least for 10 or 14 years".

The first efforts in Congress to repeal the 22nd Amendment were undertaken in 1956, only five years after the amendment's ratification. According to the Congressional Research Service, over the ensuing half-century (through 2008) 54 joint resolutions seeking to repeal the two-term presidential election limit were introduced (primarily in the House); none were given serious consideration. Between 1997 and 2013, José E. Serrano, Democratic representative for New York, introduced nine resolutions (one per Congress, all unsuccessful) to repeal the amendment. Repeal has also been supported by senior congressmen such as Barney Frank and David Dreier and Senators Mitch McConnell and Harry Reid.

Damasio's theory of consciousness

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Developed in his (1999) book, The Feeling of What Happens, Antonio Damasio's three layered theory of consciousness is based on a hierarchy of stages, with each stage building upon the last. The most basic representation of the organism is referred to as the Protoself, next is Core Consciousness, and finally, Extended Consciousness. Damasio, who is an internationally recognized leader in neuroscience, was educated at the University of Lisbon and currently directs the University of Southern California Brain and Creativity Institute. Damasio's approach to explaining the development of consciousness relies on three notions: emotion, feeling, and feeling a feeling. Emotions are a collection of unconscious neural responses to qualia. These complex reactions to stimuli cause observable external changes in the organism. A feeling arises when the organism becomes aware of the changes it is experiencing as a result of external or internal stimuli.

Protoself

Our most basic representation of self, as Damasio dubs it, is the Protoself. A non conscious state, this level of self is shared by many species. This is the most basic level of awareness signified by a collection of neural patterns that are representative of the body's internal state. The function of this 'self' is to constantly detect and record, moment by moment, the internal physical changes that affect the homeostasis of the organism. Protoself does not represent a traditional sense of self; rather, it is a pre-conscious state, which provides a reference for the core self and autobiographical self to build from. As Damasio puts it, "Protoself is a coherent collection of neural patterns, which map moment-by-moment the state of the physical structure of the organism" (Damasio 1999).

Multiple brain areas are required for the Protoself to function. Namely, the hypothalamus, which controls the general homeostasis of the organism, the brain stem, whose nuclei map body signals, and the insular cortex whose function is linked to emotion. These brain areas work together to keep up with the constant process of collecting neural patterns to map the current status of the body's responses to environmental changes. The Protoself does not require language in order to function; moreover, it is a direct report of one's experience.

In this state, emotion begins to manifest itself as second-order neural patterns located in subcortical areas of the brain. Emotion acts as a neural object, from which a physical reaction can be drawn. This reaction causes the organism to become aware of the changes that are affecting it. From this realization, springs Damasio's notion of “feeling”. This occurs when the patterns contributing to emotion manifest as mental images, or brain movies. When the body is modified by these neural objects, the second layer of self emerges. This is known as core consciousness.

Core consciousness

Sufficiently more evolved is the second layer of Damasio's theory, Core Consciousness. This emergent process occurs when an organism becomes consciously aware of feelings associated with changes occurring to its internal bodily state; it is able to recognize that its thoughts are its own, and that they are formulated in its own perspective. It develops a momentary sense of self, as the brain continuously builds representative images, based on communications received from the Protoself. This level of consciousness is not exclusive to human beings and remains consistent and stable throughout the lifetime of the organism The image is a result of mental patterns which are caused by an interaction with internal or external stimulus. A relationship is established, between the organism and the object it is observing as the brain continuously creates images to represent the organism's experience of qualia.

Damasio's definition of emotion is that of an unconscious reaction to any internal or external stimulus which activates neural patterns in the brain. ‘Feeling’ emerges as a still unconscious state which simply senses the changes affecting the Protoself due to the emotional state. These patterns develop into mental images, which then float into the organism's awareness. Put simply, consciousness is the feeling of knowing a feeling. When the organism becomes aware of the feeling that its bodily state (Protoself) is being affected by its experiences, or response to emotion, Core Consciousness is born. The brain continues to present nonverbal narrative sequence of images in the mind of the organism, based on its relationship to objects. An object in this context can be anything from a person, to a melody, to a neural image. Core consciousness is concerned only with the present moment, here and now. It does not require language or memory, nor can it reflect on past experiences or project itself into the future.

Extended consciousness

When consciousness moves beyond the here and now, Damasio's third and final layer emerges as Extended Consciousness. This level could not exist without its predecessors, and, unlike them, requires a vast use of conventional memory. Therefore, an injury to a person's memory center can cause damage to their extended consciousness, without hurting the other layers. The autobiographical self draws on memory of past experiences which involves use of higher thought. This autobiographical layer of self is developed gradually over time. Working memory is necessary for an extensive display of items to be recalled and referenced. Linguistic areas of the brain are activated to enhance the organism's experience, however, contrary to the language of thought hypothesis, language is not necessarily required.

Antonio Damasio

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonio_Damasio 

Antonio Damasio
Damasio at the Fronteiras do Pensamento conference in 2013.
Born	25 February 1944 (age 76) Lisbon, Portugal
Nationality	U.S. and Portuguese
Alma mater	University of Lisbon
Spouse(s)	Hanna Damasio
Awards	Pessoa Prize (1992) Golden Brain Award (1995) Prince of Asturias Prize (2005) Honda Prize (2010) Grawemeyer Award in Psychology (2014) Paul D. MacLean Award (2019)
Scientific career
Fields	Cognitive Neuroscience
Institutions	University of Southern California, University of Iowa
Thesis	Perturbações neurológicas da linguagem e de outras funções simbólicas (1974)
Author abbrev. (botany)	1333
Councilor of State
Incumbent
Assumed office 24 April 2017
President	Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa
Preceded by	António Guterres

Antonio Damasio (Portuguese: António Damásio) is a Portuguese-American neuroscientist. He is currently the David Dornsife Chair in Neuroscience, as well as Professor of Psychology, Philosophy, and Neurology, at the University of Southern California, and, additionally, an adjunct professor at the Salk Institute. He was previously the chair of neurology at the University of Iowa for 20 years. Damasio heads the Brain and Creativity Institute, and has authored several books: his most recent work, Self Comes to Mind: Constructing the Conscious Brain (2010), explores the relationship between the brain and consciousness. Damasio's research in neuroscience has shown that emotions play a central role in social cognition and decision-making.

Life and work

Damasio studied medicine at the University of Lisbon Medical School, where he also did his neurological residency and completed his doctorate. For part of his studies, he researched behavioral neurology under the supervision of Norman Geschwind of the Aphasia Research Center in Boston.

Damasio's main field is neurobiology, especially the neural systems which underlie emotion, decision-making, memory, language and consciousness. Damasio might believe that emotions play a critical role in high-level cognition—an idea counter to dominant 20th-century views in psychology, neuroscience and philosophy.

Damasio in 2008.

Damasio formulated the somatic marker hypothesis, a theory about how emotions and their biological underpinnings are involved in decision-making (both positively and negatively, and often non-consciously). Emotions provide the scaffolding for the construction of social cognition and are required for the self processes which undergird consciousness. "Damasio provides a contemporary scientific validation of the linkage between feelings and the body by highlighting the connection between mind and nerve cells ... this personalized embodiment of mind."

The somatic marker hypothesis has inspired many neuroscience experiments carried out in laboratories in the U.S. and Europe, and has had a major impact in contemporary science and philosophy. Damasio has been named by the Institute for Scientific Information as one of the most highly cited researchers in the past decade. Current work on the biology of moral decisions, neuro-economics, social communication, and drug-addiction, has been strongly influenced by Damasio's hypothesis. An article published in the Archives of Scientific Psychology in 2014 named Damasio one of the 100 most eminent psychologist of the modern era. (Diener et al. Archives of Scientific Psychology, 2014, 2, 20–32). The June–July issue of Sciences Humaines included Damasio in its list of 50 key thinkers in the human sciences of the past two centuries.

Damasio also proposed that emotions are part of homeostatic regulation and are rooted in reward/punishment mechanisms. He recovered William James' perspective on feelings as a read-out of body states, but expanded it with an "as-if-body-loop" device which allows for the substrate of feelings to be simulated rather than actual (foreshadowing the simulation process later uncovered by mirror neurons). He demonstrated experimentally that the insular cortex is a critical platform for feelings, a finding that has been widely replicated, and he uncovered cortical and subcortical induction sites for human emotions, e.g. in ventromedial prefrontal cortex and amygdala. He also demonstrated that while the insular cortex plays a major role in feelings, it is not necessary for feelings to occur, suggesting that brain stem structures play a basic role in the feeling process.

He has continued to investigate the neural basis of feelings and demonstrated that although the insular cortex is a major substrate for this process it is not exclusive, suggesting that brain stem nuclei are critical platforms as well. He regards feelings as the necessary foundation of sentience.

In another development, Damasio proposed that the cortical architecture on which learning and recall depend involves multiple, hierarchically organized loops of axonal projections that converge on certain nodes out of which projections diverge to the points of origin of convergence (the convergence-divergence zones). This architecture is applicable to the understanding of memory processes and of aspects of consciousness related to the access of mental contents.

In The Feeling of What Happens, Damasio laid the foundations of the "enchainment of precedences": "the nonconscious neural signaling of an individual organism begets the protoself which permits core self and core consciousness, which allow for an autobiographical self, which permits extended consciousness. At the end of the chain, extended consciousness permits conscience.

Damasio's research depended significantly on establishing the modern human lesion method, an enterprise made possible by Hanna Damasio's structural neuroimaging/neuroanatomy work complemented by experimental neuroanatomy (with Gary Van Hoesen and Josef Parvizi), experimental neuropsychology (with Antoine Bechara, Ralph Adolphs, and Dan Tranel) and functional neuroimaging (with Kaspar Meyer, Jonas Kaplan, and Mary Helen Immordino-Yang). The experimental neuroanatomy work with Van Hoesen and Bradley Hyman led to the discovery of the disconnection of the hippocampus caused by neurofibrillary tangles in the entorhinal cortex of patients with Alzheimer's disease.

As a clinician, he and his collaborators have studied and treated disorders of behaviour and cognition, and movement disorders.

Damasio's books deal with the relationship between emotions and their brain substrates. His 1994 book, Descartes' Error: Emotion, Reason and the Human Brain, won the Science et Vie prize, was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Award, and is translated in over 30 languages. It is regarded as one of the most influential books of the past two decades. His second book, The Feeling of What Happens: Body and Emotion in the Making of Consciousness, was named as one of the ten best books of 2001 by the New York Times Book Review, a Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year, a Library Journal Best Book of the Year, and has over 30 foreign editions. Damasio's Looking for Spinoza: Joy, Sorrow, and the Feeling Brain, was published in 2003. In it, Damasio suggested that the philosopher Baruch Spinoza's thinking foreshadowed discoveries in biology and neuroscience views on the mind-body problem and that Spinoza was a protobiologist. Damasio's latest book is Self Comes to Mind: Constructing the Conscious Brain. In it Damasio suggests that the self is the key to conscious minds and that feelings, from the kind he designates as primordial to the well-known feelings of emotion, are the basic elements in the construction of the protoself and core self. The book received the Corinne International Book Prize.

Damasio at Fronteiras do Pensamento (Frontiers of Thought) in 2013

Damasio is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine, the European Academy of Sciences and Arts. He is the recipient of several prizes, amongst them the Grawemeyer Award, the Honda Prize, the Prince of Asturias Award in Science and Technology and the Beaumont Medal from the American Medical Association, as well as honorary degrees from, most recently, the Sorbonne (Université Paris Descartes), shared with his wife Hanna Damasio. He has also received doctorates from the Universities of Aachen, Copenhagen, Leiden, Barcelona, Coimbra, Leuven and numerous others.

In 2013, the Escola Secundária António Damásio was dedicated in Lisbon.

He says he writes in the belief that "scientific knowledge can be a pillar to help humans endure and prevail."

He is married to Hanna Damasio, a prominent neuroscientist and frequent collaborator and co-author, who is a professor of neuroscience at the University of Southern California and the director of the Dornsife Neuroimaging Center.

In 2017 he was designated member of the Council of State of Portugal, replacing Antonio Guterres, the 9th Secretary-General of the United Nations.

Damasio additionally serves on the board of directors of the Berggruen Institute, and sits on the jury for the Berggruen Prize for Philosophy.

Selected bibliography

Books

• Descartes' Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain, Putnam, 1994; revised Penguin edition, 2005
• The Feeling of What Happens: Body and Emotion in the Making of Consciousness, Harcourt, 1999
• Looking for Spinoza: Joy, Sorrow, and the Feeling Brain, Harcourt, 2003
• Self Comes to Mind: Constructing the Conscious Brain, Pantheon, 2010. ISBN 978-1-5012-4695-1
• The Strange Order of Things: Life, Feeling, and the Making of Cultures, Pantheon, 2018.

Selected articles

Fox G.R.; Kaplan J.; Damasio H.; Damasio A. (2015). "Neural correlates of gratitude". Frontiers in Psychology. 6 (1491): 1491. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01491. PMC 4588123. PMID 26483740.

Sachs M.; Damasio A.; Habibi A. (2015). "The pleasures of sad music: a systematic review". Frontiers in Human Neuroscience. 9 (404): 1–12. doi:10.3389/fnhum.2015.00404. PMC 4513245. PMID 26257625.

Man K.; Damasio A.; Meyer K.; Kaplan J.T. (2015). "Convergent and invariant object representations for sight, sound, and touch". Human Brain Mapping. 36 (9): 3629–3640. doi:10.1002/hbm.22867. PMC 6869094. PMID 26047030.

Habibi A.; Damasio A. (2014). "Music, feelings and the human brain". Psychomusicology: Music, Mind and Brain. 24 (1): 92–102. doi:10.1037/pmu0000033.

Man K, Kaplan J.T., Damasio H, Damasio A. (28 October 2013). "Neural convergence and divergence in the mammalian cerebral cortex: from experimental neuroanatomy to functional neuroimaging". Journal of Comparative Neurology. 521 (18): 4097–4111. doi:10.1002/cne.23408. PMC 3853095. PMID 23840023.

Araujo H P, Kaplan JT, Damasio A (4 September 2013). "Cortical midline structures and autobiographical-self processes: an activation-likelihood estimation (ALE) meta-analysis". Frontiers in Human Neuroscience. 7: 548. doi:10.3389/fnhum.2013.00548. PMC 3762365. PMID 24027520.

Damasio, A; Carvalho, GB (2013). "The nature of feelings: Evolutionary and neurobiological origins". Nature Reviews. Neuroscience. 14 (2): 143–52. doi:10.1038/nrn3403. PMID 23329161. S2CID 35232202.

Damasio A, Damasio H, Tranel D (2012). "Persistence of feelings and sentience after bilateral damage of the insula". Cerebral Cortex. 23 (4): 833–46. doi:10.1093/cercor/bhs077. PMC 3657385. PMID 22473895.

Feinstein J, Adolphs R, Damasio A, Tranel D (2011). "The human amygdala and the induction and experience of fear". Current Biology. 21 (1): 1–5. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2010.11.042. PMC 3030206. PMID 21167712.

Meyer K, Kaplan JT, Essex R, Damasio H, Damasio A (2011). "Seeing touch is correlated with content-specific activity in primary somatosensory cortex". Cerebral Cortex. 21 (9): 2113–2121. doi:10.1093/cercor/bhq289. PMC 3155604. PMID 21330469.

Meyer K, Kaplan JT, Essex R, Webber C, Damasio H, Damasio A (2010). "Predicting visual stimuli based on activity in auditory cortices". Nature Neuroscience. 13 (6): 667–668. doi:10.1038/nn.2533. PMID 20436482. S2CID 8226089.

Meyer K, Damasio A (2009). "Convergence and divergence in a neural architecture for recognition and memory". Trends in Neurosciences. 32 (7): 376–382. doi:10.1016/j.tins.2009.04.002. PMID 19520438. S2CID 205403597.

Immordino-Yang MH, McColl A, Damasio H, Damasio A (2009). "Neural correlates of admiration and compassion". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 106 (19): 8021–8026. doi:10.1073/pnas.0810363106. PMC 2670880. PMID 19414310.

Damasio A, Meyer K (2008). "Behind the looking glass". Nature. 454 (7201): 167–168. Bibcode:2008Natur.454..167D. doi:10.1038/454167a. PMID 18615070. S2CID 200767224.

Parvizi J, Van Hoesen G, Buckwalter J, Damasio A (2006). "Neural connections of the posteromedial cortex in the macaque: Implications for the understanding of the neural basis of consciousness". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 103 (5): 1563–1568. doi:10.1073/pnas.0507729103. PMC 1345704. PMID 16432221.

Shiv B, Lowenstein G, Bechara A, Damasio H, Damasio A (2005). "Investment behavior and the negative side of emotion". Psychological Science. 16 (6): 435–439. doi:10.1111/j.0956-7976.2005.01553.x (inactive 2020-09-01). PMID 15943668.

Parvizi J, Damasio AR (2003). "Neuroanatomical correlates of brainstem coma". Brain. 126 (Pt 7): 1524–1536. doi:10.1093/brain/awg166. PMID 12805123.

Parvizi J, Damasio AR (2001). "Consciousness and the brainstem". Cognition. 79 (1–2): 135–160. doi:10.1016/S0010-0277(00)00127-X. PMID 11164026. S2CID 205872101.

Damasio AR, Grabowski TJ, Bechara A, Damasio H, Ponto LL, Parvizi J, Hichwa RD (2000). "Subcortical and cortical brain activity during the feeling of self-generated emotions". Nature Neuroscience. 3 (10): 1049–1056. doi:10.1038/79871. PMID 11017179. S2CID 3352415.

Damasio AR. (1999). "How the brain creates the mind". Scientific American. 281 (6): 74–79. Bibcode:1999SciAm.281f.112D. doi:10.1038/scientificamerican1299-112. PMID 10614073.

Damasio AR (1998). "Investigating the biology of consciousness". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences. 353 (1377): 1879–1882. doi:10.1098/rstb.1998.0339. PMC 1692416. PMID 9854259.

Bechara A, Damasio H, Tranel D, Damasio AR (1997). "Deciding advantageously before knowing the advantageous strategy". Science. 275 (5304): 1293–1294. doi:10.1126/science.275.5304.1293. PMID 9036851. S2CID 4942279.

Damasio AR. (1996). "The somatic marker hypothesis and the possible functions of the prefrontal cortex". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences. 351 (1346): 1413–1420. doi:10.1098/rstb.1996.0125. PMID 8941953.

Bechara A, Damasio AR, Damasio H, Anderson S (1994). "Insensitivity to future consequences following damage to human prefrontal cortex". Cognition. 50 (1–3): 7–15. doi:10.1016/0010-0277(94)90018-3. PMID 8039375. S2CID 204981454.

Adolphs R, Tranel D, Damasio AR (1994). "Impaired recognition of emotion in facial expressions following bilateral damage to the human amygdala". Nature. 372 (6507): 669–672. Bibcode:1994Natur.372..669A. doi:10.1038/372669a0. PMID 7990957. S2CID 25169376.

Damasio AR, Tranel D (1993). "Nouns and verbs are retrieved with differently distributed neural systems". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 90 (11): 4957–4960. Bibcode:1993PNAS...90.4957D. doi:10.1073/pnas.90.11.4957. PMC 46632. PMID 8506341.

Damasio A, Tranel D, Damasio H (1990). "Face agnosia and the neural substrates of memory". Annual Review of Neuroscience. 13: 89–109. doi:10.1146/annurev.ne.13.030190.000513. PMID 2183687.

Damasio AR. (1989). "Time-locked multiregional retroactivation: A systems level proposal for the neural substrates of recall and recognition". Cognition. 33 (1–2): 25–62. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.308.6140. doi:10.1016/0010-0277(89)90005-X. PMID 2691184. S2CID 34115898.

Tranel D, Damasio A (1985). "Knowledge without awareness: An autonomic index of facial recognition by prosopagnosics". Science. 228 (21): 1453–1454. Bibcode:1985Sci...228.1453T. doi:10.1126/science.4012303. PMID 4012303.

Hyman B, Van Hoesen GW, Damasio A, Barnes C (1984). "Alzheimer's disease: Cell-specific pathology isolates the hippocampal formation". Science. 225 (4667): 1168–1170. Bibcode:1984Sci...225.1168H. doi:10.1126/science.6474172. PMID 6474172.

Damasio A, Geschwind N (1984). "The neural basis of language". Annual Review of Neuroscience. 7: 127–147. doi:10.1146/annurev.ne.07.030184.001015. PMID 6370077.

Anderson SW, Bechara A, Damasio H, Tranel D, Damasio AR (1999). "Impairment of social and moral behaviour related to early damage in human prefrontal cortex". Nature Neuroscience. 2 (11): 1032–1037. doi:10.1038/14833. PMID 10526345. S2CID 204990285.