Doctoral dissertation from the University of Toronto Department of Philosophy, 1999. Concerns the development of the concept of sympathy in western thought from the ancients to approximately 1800, with a focus on eighteenth century philosophers David Hartley, David Hume and Adam Smith. Other figures discussed include Aristotle, Plotinus, Kenelm Digby, Pliny the Elder, Louis Jean Levesque de Pouilly, Lord Shaftesbury, Thomas Browne, Samuel Jackson Pratt, Hannah More, Robert Whytt, Hermann Boerhaave and many others.