The interoceptive underpinnings of the feeling of being alive. Damasio’s insights at work

Bibliographic Data

ID21751079
AuthorsEmilia Barile (0000-0002-8923-8757, Heidelberg University, corresponding author)
Year2025
Volume24
Issue5
Pages1249-1271
Publication date2025-12-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenuePhenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1568-7759 • E-ISSN: 1572-8676
PublisherSpringer Science and Business Media LLC (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1007/s11097-023-09900-7
OpenAlexW4365813067
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited43

The feeling of being alive still constitutes a major blind spot of contemporary affective sciences research. The mainstream view accepts it as an ‘umbrella notion’ comprising different states, such as M. Ratcliffe’s «feelings of being», T. Fuchs’s «feeling of being alive», E.M. Engelen’s « Gefühl des Lebendigseins », etc. In contrast, I argue for an account of the feeling of being alive as a unique feeling that can be described in several ways. Empirical support for this view comes mainly from Carvalho and Damasio’s hypothesis of the distinctiveness of the interoceptive system as the physiological underpinning of this feeling. This account is also in line with many other approaches recognizing the role of interoception proper in mind and subjectivity grounding, collected by Tsakiris and De Presteer. Over recent decades, Damasio’s organic descriptions have been widely acknowledged as neurophysiological counterparts of philosophical/psychological concepts. However, in my view they have been often misinterpreted, especially due to the mainstream Ratcliffian interpretation mediating his ideas amongst philosophers. Throughout the paper, a critical inquiry into Damasio’s conceptualization is provided, by means of conceptual analysis and an overall taxonomy of the several affective states he has proposed over the past few decades. Ultimately, a critical discussion of his own account of the feeling of being alive is offered from a philosophical viewpoint

Cognitive science · Conceptualization · Epistemology · Feeling · Mainstream · Metaphysics · Optimal distinctiveness theory · Philosophy of mind · Subjectivity · Action Observation and Synchronization · Embodied and Extended Cognition · Mental Health and Psychiatry · Philosophy · Psychology · Social Psychology

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