Amour-de-soi is idealised as the original benign form of self-love a purely 'natural sentiment' concerned with animals' vigilance in their 'own preservation' (1987: 106). The fact, however, that the second discourse often associates this 'progress' from the state of nature to societal man with 'the decay of the species' (1987: 65) encourages a narrow view of amour-propre as a largely negative phenomenon. The sentiment rooted in this first instance of human self-consciousness is what Rousseau refers to as amour-propre. 'Through frequent contact with one another' we became 'accustomed to consider different objects and to make comparisons' (Rousseau, 1987: 63). Rousseau traces our development from the hypothetical starting point of a 'state of nature' to understand the process through which humans developed from solitary wild beasts into a society. Keywords: Rousseau, Amour-propre, Amour-de-soi, Self-love, Virtue, Justice, General will

It then becomes clear that while this interpretation may be more complex, it has the potential to provide us with a fuller account of how healthy amour-propre must play a role in creating virtuous citizens. While a new conception opens up contradictions as well as many new pitfalls for the ways in which amour-propre can go awry, I reconstruct Rousseau's Emile to provide a coherent account of how it must be cultivated from a young age. While this view is already held by some authors, I wish to go further beyond the parameters of simply suggesting that a more 'egalitarian' understanding of amour-propre, based on equal moral respect for individuals, can tame its 'inegalitarian' tendencies.

First of all, I aim to show – contrary to what are termed 'primitivist' interpretations of Rousseau's Discourse on Inequality – that a positive role was intended for amour-propre. This article provides an interpretation of a range of Rousseau's texts which ascribe crucial importance to the role of amour-propre (roughly, a form of self-love that is fuelled by the good opinions of others) in allowing humans to live virtuously, or more specifically, to live in accordance with the general will. Theodore Bass, Department of Politics and International Studies, University of Warwick

The social contract and emile