Damsio's distinction between emotion and feeling is an interesting one because it wouldn't have made any sense to say such a thing before we could measure the physiological aspect of feeling in the brain (or other internal organs).  The outward manifestation of feeling and the inward experience of feeling are the same thing if you can't verify the inward experience of anyone else.  This causes me to wonder what other aspects of the human experience may be further dissected and clarified in the future when technology gives us the capability; the relationship between subconscious and conscious thought comes to mind.

In the same vein, I thought Damiso's explanation of the way emotion precedes thought to be very interesting.  As he states, most people think of this relationship as going in the other direction.  However, Damiso's explanation makes sense when considered from the evolutionary framework he provides.  In fact, I thought all of his evolutionary and physical explanations of feeling were great.  It's amusing to think about how all of human culture is built upon evolutionary traits and developed responses that may not even be valid in our current state of technological advanceent.  Persuasion is just the result of a few misused (according to their original functions) mechanisms and structures present in the brain of Jane Austen, along with any other novel or work of art.  Some of these behaviors may even be harmful, as Damsio brings up (racism; anger; etc.).  He even states at one point "We can learn to disregard such reactions and persuade others to do the same".  The implication of what he's saying is that feelings are really only holding us back as a species.  This is interesting for two reasons:  it's probably true, which is funny given that feelings were obviously something that helped humans succeed in the first place, and it brings up the question of whether feelings or reaching humanity's full potential is more important.  There's nearly nobody (apart from a few abnormal individuals) who would give up all of their unreasonable and unproductive feelings in order to be a more productive member of society.  Of course, humans only have an affection for human feeling because we have feelings, in an odd self-fulfilling way.  If aliens came by with a massive feeling-amputation ray and immediately rendered all humans incapable of feeling, nobody would miss it (by definition).  We'd probably develop teleportation and begin to colonize other planets within the year.  The question is, without emotion, would anything people did even matter anymore?  Without feeling, the answer is no, at least under the current definition of meaning.  It should be noted that bacteria do just fine operating strictly according to biological tenets with no feelings or even nervous systems to get in the way.