A conventional assumption found throughout Damasio’s Somatic Marker Hypothesis is the assumption of efficient causation. Efficient causation is the idea that events happen across time in antecedent relationships. Damasio’s hypothesis provides an explanation for decision-making, stating, “When a situation for which some factual aspect has been previously categorized, related dispositions are activated in higher-order association cortices…. This leads to the recall of pertinently associated facts…. And as a consequence, the emotional disposition… is activated too” (p. 1415). This linear progression of (a) related dispositions being activated that (b) leads to a recall of pertinent facts which (c) consequently activates an emotional disposition, breaks down cognition into separate events occurring across time, with one event causing the other occur. The final emotional disposition cannot be achieved with out the recall of pertinently associated facts that were activated by related dispositions, which arose from the situation.
An alternative to this conventional assumption would be formal causation. Formal causation is the idea that individual events form a whole, constituting each other simultaneously in time. Instead of viewing the cognition involved in decision making as a summation of independent events happening across time, Damasio could explain this process in relation to the context of the situation, brain activity, and emotion occurring simultaneously. For example Damasio might say, “Our understanding of the present situation is channeled by prefrontal activity that interacts with emotions experienced in the present, which ultimately influences what decisions will be made in the moment.” Although this explanation appears sequential it does not provide a step-by-step process for cognition; nothing from the past acts on the present to influence cognition; instead everything is occurring in the present simultaneously. These events cannot occur unless they happen together from this alternative assumption.
Another conventional assumption found in Domasio’s hypothesis is the assumption of instrumental reasoning. Instrumental reasoning is the notion that some internal or external mechanism preforms a cost-benefit analysis using information inputs to achieve a future self-benefiting goal. Domasio’s hypothesis suggests that with the somatic marker, “Certain option-outcome pairs can be rapidly rejected or endorsed and… help[s] constrain the decision-making space by making that space manageable for logic-based, cost-benefit analyses” (p. 1415). The somatic marker is the instrument for human cognition in three ways: (a) it evaluates option-outcome pairs; (b) it constrains the decision-making space and (c) makes this space manageable for logic-based cost-benefit analyses. These cost-benefit analyses, deciding which option will best benefit the needs of the individual given a certain scenario, are assumed to be the ultimate goal of human behavior and the somatic marker is the mechanism that enables these analyses.
An alternative approach to instrumental reasoning is holistic reasoning. Holistic reasoning is the concept that other forms of knowledge exist (e.g. how to love an enemy) that are necessary for making decisions that benefit the other rather than the self through cost-benefit analyses. Instead of reducing human cognition to a single mechanism (e.g. the somatic marker), Damasio could explain how multiple systems (e.g. personal values and culture) influence the cognition involved in decision-making. For instance, Damasio could explain a person’s decision to express love for someone that they have been offended by through the personal values the offended person places on his or her relationship with the other person. For the offended person, the expression of love is seen as the correct action for mending the relationship. The offended person does not preform a cost-benefit analysis to decided what will be best for him or her; rather the offended person is concerned about his or her relationship with the offender because they value relationships. The expression of love is enabled by the personal values placed on relationships held by the offended person, not by some internal or external mechanism.
Damasio, A.R. (1996). The somatic marker hypothesis and the possible functions of the prefrontal cortex. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond., 351, 1413-1420.
