Amour-propre



Amour-propre (French, literally "self-love"). It means love - "amour" and self - "propre". By definition it can mean loving oneself whereas in philosophy it is a debated theory of Jean-Jacques Rousseau that esteem must be found by the approval of others first. 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 is an unnatural form of self-love that arose only with the appearance of society and individuals' consequent ability to compare themselves with one another. Rousseau thought that amour-propre was subject to corruption, thereby causing vice and misery.

The term amour-propre predates Rousseau and is found in the writings of Blaise Pascal, La Rochefoucauld, Pierre Nicole, Jacques Abbadie and many others. Pascal detested self love, self esteem, ego, vanity as well perhaps, which are interchangeable terms for him, because it puts the self in the place of God. He suggested it was unfair that we are born with the desire to be loved by others, but unavoidable due to the consequence of the Fall, or original sin. Christianity was the only true remedy to this wretched state of man known as amour-propre.