Amour-propre

Amour-propre (lit. "self love") is a concept in the philosophy of Jean-Jacques Rousseau that denotes a self-love that depends upon the opinion of others. Rousseau contrasts it with amour de soi, which also means self love, but which does not involve seeing oneself as others see one. According to Rousseau, amour de soi is more primitive and is compatible with wholeness and happiness while amour-propre arose only with the appearance of society and renders human beings incapable of being happy within society.

The term amour-propre predates Rousseau and is found in the writings of Pascal, La Rochefoucauld and many others. For Pascal Christianity was the only true remedy to this wretched state of man known as amour-propre, which for him is a direct consequence of the Fall, and in his writings the term generally refers to man's desire to satisfy his own needs and desires.