ABSTRACT
This chapter expresses that fellow-feeling is an ultimate and original function of the spirit, whose empirical genesis is in no way due in the first place, to other processes, such as reproduction, imitation, illusion or hallucination, in the life of the individual. It also explores that fellow-feeling undergoes an extensive development in each individual; there is good reason to speak of a 'childish egoism', only later giving place, increasingly, to fellow-feeling. The progress of civilization has often been ascribed to an enlargement of fellow-feeling— for instance, in the abolition of torture, the mitigation of capital punishment and flogging, and the stamping-out of barbaric sports such as bull-fighting or the wild-beast combats of the Roman arena. The growth of social relations among nations and infra-national groups, and the increased solidarity of their interests, has not accentuated the heteropathic responses, as such, for all their effect upon the capacities for understanding.
