Amour de soi
At Rousseau’s, *amour de soi* is a natural sentiment, prior to any society, that drives every animal to look after its own preservation. It is neither good nor bad in itself: when guided in man by reason and tempered by pity, it gives rise to humanity and virtue. It belongs to the state of nature, where each person cares only for their own well-being without comparing themselves to others. It is the healthy root of self-preservation, not to be confused with *amour-propre*, its counterpart corrupted by social life.
L’amour de soi-même est un sentiment naturel qui porte tout animal à veiller à sa propre conservation et qui, dirigé dans l’homme par la raison et modifié par la pitié, produit l’humanité et la vertu.
Rousseau opens the famous fifteenth note with a warning: “We must not confuse amour-propre and self-love—two passions entirely distinct in their nature and their effects.”
The entire Discourse hinges on this division. Self-love is the first of the two principles man receives before reason: “a natural sentiment that drives every animal to attend to its own preservation.” It concerns only the self, not out of a desire to be preferred over others, but because it has yet to recognize others as rivals.
This sentiment is not selfish in the modern sense. Left to itself, it would be blind; but nature has paired it with pity—this repugnance at seeing one’s fellow suffer—“tempering in each individual the activity of self-love” and directing it toward the mutual preservation of the species. Guided by reason, self-love becomes the wellspring of humanity and virtue. Here, there is no comparison, no vanity, no craving to be preferred.
This is to be distinguished from amour-propre, which is not its extension but its social counterfeit: where self-love seeks merely to live, amour-propre seeks to dominate. The first is absolute, relating only to oneself; the second is relative, existing only in the eyes of others. It is by distorting self-love that society gives rise to amour-propre—and with it, moral inequality.