Abstract: Amour-propre provides a new way to understand the unity of Rousseau's writings and the sociality of modern self. Unlike amour de soi, which is concerned with self-preservation, amour-propre is a social and reflective product based on interpersonal comparison that urges people to pursuit superiority over the others. The formation of amour-propre is related to the deepening of interactions among natural men and the development of their rational ability. Individual amour-propre has its origin in the dependence and domination relationship caused by infants' crying while mankind amour-propre can be traced back to the evolution of love between sexes from physical love to moral love. Amour-propre is the psychological cause of the deepening of inequality, of the state of nature becoming the state of war, as well as the root of human sufferings and misfortunes of the civilized world. However, Rousseau agrees that amour-propre cannot be eliminated and can only be guided and reshaped. The" citizen plan" embodied in Social Contract and other political works, and the " man plan" elaborated in Emile represent respectively Rousseau's two different proposals of reforming amour-propre. In a deliberate contrast of pride and vanity, Rousseau confronts modern bourgeois with ancient citizens. In his views, correctly guided pride towards the public self is an important driving force for the shaping of civic virtues. The education of Emile, with its aim of returning to nature and cultivating an independent individual, can be regarded as another solution to the problem of amour-propre. In this plan, the passion that plays the main therapeutic role is pity. Egalitarian consciousness contained in pity helps Emile to foster a proper amour-propre. From Hobbes to Hegel, in the process of re-recognizing and taming human pride,modern thinkers have unfolded their theory of human nature, on which moral, political and social projects are founded. Rousseau's doctrine of amour-propre constitutes an important part of this endeavor.

Key words: passion, amour-propre, pride, vanity