Amour-propre
At Rousseau’s, *amour-propre* is a relative, artificial sentiment born in society, which leads each individual to value themselves above all others. It arises from comparison: as soon as people live together, each measures themselves, seeks to be noticed, preferred, esteemed, and derives their own worth from the gaze of others. Absent in the state of nature, it is the hinge of the *Discourse*: it is from this shift from *amour de soi* to *amour-propre* that moral inequality emerges, along with the train of evils people inflict on one another.
L’amour-propre n’est qu’un sentiment relatif, factice et né dans la société, qui porte chaque individu à faire plus cas de soi que de tout autre, qui inspire aux hommes tous les maux qu’ils se font mutuellement et qui est la véritable source de l’honneur.
Self-love (amour-propre) is the pivotal passion of the Discourse. A “factitious sentiment born in society,” it has no place in primitive man: “in our original state, in the true state of nature, self-love does not exist.” And for good reason: it is “a sentiment that springs from comparisons,” which the savage—seeing himself as the sole spectator of his life—is in no position to make. Only communal life, the proximity of others’ gazes, allows it to take root.
Its mechanism is one of comparison. “Reason engenders self-love, and reflection strengthens it”: as soon as we measure ourselves against others, we seek to outvalue them. “Being and appearing became two entirely different things,” and from this split between being and seeming arise ostentation, deceit, and envy. Man ceases to live within himself, instead living in the opinion of others, borrowing even the sense of his own existence from their judgment.
≠ Self-preservation (amour de soi), with which Rousseau expressly forbids confusing it. Self-preservation is natural, absolute, oriented toward survival; self-love is artificial, relative, oriented toward precedence. One seeks to live, the other to dominate. The entire anthropology of the Discourse hinges on this shift: inequality among men does not arise from some original vice, but from this belated passion, where one’s worth is measured by the eyes of others.