The Theory of Moral Sentiments

It is an innately human trait to sympathize with others and to feel both their sorrow and joy.

Even the most hardened brute feels pity for the poor and miserable. In fact, it’s part of human nature to experience compassion for the unfortunate. When someone is being tortured, you can’t literally feel that person’s pain. But you can imagine and mirror it – just as when someone kicks another’s leg, you instinctively touch your own. In empathizing with fellow humans, you don’t just feel their sorrow and distress but also their joy and happiness.

The term “sympathy” means an affinity with all sorts of human passions and emotions. You generally feel less sympathetic with the passion itself than with its causes. The main question is: Why is that person sad, angry, joyful or happy? An old man may be perfectly content due to a loss of his mental faculties, and in that case many observers would feel sorry for him, because he doesn’t know any better. At times, you might feel some emotions in lieu of others, such as when someone makes a fool of himself and you are embarrassed for him, or when a mother hears her infant cry, feels...