at the root of his hostility was his claim that the march towards civilisation had awakened in man a form of ‘self-love’ – amour-propre – that was artificial and centred on pride, jealousy and vanity. He argued that this destructive form of self-love had emerged as a consequence of people moving to bigger settlements and cities where they had begun to look to others in order to glean their very sense of self. Civilised people stopped thinking about what they wanted and felt – and merely imitated others, entering into ruinous competitions for status and money.
