Vernünftige Selbstliebe

Abstract

In the Discours sur l’inégalité, Rousseau introduces the key concept of love of oneself (amour de soi-même). He conceives it as an original impulse in human beings, one that can historically be found even before the development of reason. Rousseau understands love of oneself as the instinct for self-preservation, which every animal is believed to possess by nature. However, as human reason develops, the self of the now possible love of oneself changes. Rousseau initially presents only the negative manifestation of the rational self, which is characterized by self-love (amour-propre). The Contrat social, although it speaks neither of love of oneself nor of self-love, provides its positive manifestation. I will argue that rational love of oneself, as evinced by Émile (published at the same time), is the moral ethos of the citizen.