Function, Feeling, and Conduct, an Attempt to Find a Natural Basis for Ethical Law (Classic Reprint)

Explore how sympathy and shared life shape ethics, society, and personal growth.

In Function, Feeling, and Conduct, Frederick Meakin examines how our social feelings underlie moral life. The text argues that true social union arises from the identity of human nature and the power of communal ideas, not from mere habit or instinct. It connects personal development to the broader life of culture, science, and civilization.

The book grounds ethics in the everyday experiences of belonging—from family ties to national and civil life—showing how sympathy and communication bind individuals to the wider human whole. It emphasizes that moral progress and religious feeling meet when the self acts in service of universal ends.

• How social instincts ground cooperation, culture, and moral progress
• How communication and symbolic thought enable understanding across minds
• The relationship between individual growth, social life, and collective ideals
• The shift from personal aims to universal ends as a basis for ethics and religion

Ideal for readers of philosophy, ethics, and social theory who want to understand the foundations of social life and moral conduct.