Amour de soi

Amour de soi is Rousseau’s account of natural self-regard: a desire for reasonable satisfaction that places oneself on an equal footing with others rather than seeking advantage over them. It joins care for oneself to benevolence and love of equality, and provides the moral and affective ground on which the rational demands of the General Will can become actual in social life.

Definition and Contrast

In Rousseau’s distinction, amour de soi is not self-aggrandizement. It is the natural person’s pursuit of satisfaction for reasonable desires, accompanied by benevolence. This self-regard does not rank the self above other people; it establishes an equal standing among them. The distinction therefore concerns not whether a person cares for the self, but whether that care can coexist with the equal claims of others.

Amour-propre, by contrast, is egoism: the preference for one’s own interests at the expense of others. Rousseau treats egoism and altruism as opposing, one-sided qualities that arise through the perversion of humanity’s natural goodness. Amour de soi is not simply the milder of these two extremes; it names a different orientation, in which self-concern does not require another person’s loss.

Natural Goodness and Equality

Rousseau’s claim that human beings are born good means, in this account, that their nature inclines them to want to be treated as one among others and to share equally. Amour de soi thus includes love of others as well as love of self. Its equality is neither self-denial nor a demand to possess everything: it is a refusal to claim for oneself what one would deny to others.

The contrast also clarifies what Rousseau means by the natural in his mature political thought. Nature is not simply an original, primitive condition to which society must return. It can refer to the full development of human capacity and freedom. Amour de soi belongs to this account because its goodness lies in a way of relating to others that makes equal standing possible, rather than in mere withdrawal from society.

Relation to the General Will

The General Will is rational in its object: it concerns what can be demanded of one person by another and what each has a right to demand in return. Yet rational precepts alone may not guide human action. Rousseau also locates their force in feeling, describing natural law as inscribed in the human heart as well as in reason. Amour de soi supplies the relevant moral disposition: the natural person’s desire for equal treatment allows the universal claims of reason to resonate in feeling.

This connection makes amour de soi a meeting point between Rousseau’s educational and political thought. The Social Contract does not directly state the doctrine of humanity’s natural goodness, but that doctrine, as the account presents it, underlies the political theory. If people can be protected from the perverting influence of existing societies, the General Will can become actual. Amour de soi names the equality-oriented human capacity on which that possibility depends.