I think he's making the distinction because of how they are processed in the brain and a brain scientist has to be excruciatingly precise, right.

I'll quote another passage but for us I guess it really doesn't matter which word we use. I probably shouldn't have included his discussion of the difference between emotions and feelings because it's going to muddy the waters of our discussing the necessity of emotions/feelings for survival.

"The other important problem is the distinction between emotion and feeling. Emotion and feeling, albeit part of a tightly bound cycle, are distinguishable processes. It makes no difference what words we choose to refer to these distinct processes, provided we acknowledge that the essence of emotion and the essence of feeling are different.

"Of course there's nothing wrong with the words emotion and feeling to begin with but let us define those key terms in light of current neurobiology.

"Emotions are complex, largely automated programs of actions concocted by evolution. The actions are complemented by a cognitive program that includes certain ideas and modes of cognition, but the world of emotions is largely one of actions carried out in our bodies, from the facial expressions and postures to changes in viscera and internal milieu.

"Feelings of emotion, on the other hand, are composite perceptions of what happens in our body and mind when we are emoting. As far as the body is concerned, feelings are images of actions rather than actions themselves; the world of feelings is one of perceptions executed in brain maps.

"But there is a qualification to be made here: the perceptions we call feelings of emotion contain a special ingredient that corresponds to the primordial feelings discussed earlier. Those feelings are based on the unique relationship between body and brain that privileges interoception.

"There are other aspects of the body being represented in emotional feelings, of course, but interoception dominates the process and is responsible for what we designate as the felt aspect of these perceptions.

"The general distinction between emotions and feeling, then, is reasonably clear. While emotions are actions accompanied by ideas and certain modes of thinking, emotional feelings are mostly perceptions of what our bodies do during the emoting, along with perceptions of our state of mind during that same period of time. In simple organisms capable of behavior but without a mind process, emotions can be alive and well, but states of emotional feeling may not necessarily follow."

Damasio explains interoception as the 'sensing of the organism's interior"

If anyone understands his explanation of the difference between emotion and feeling, I would love to be instructed. It goes over my head.

But, the most important thing from his writings I believe is the scientific explanation of why we have emotions/feelings. It is all about survival.