TY  - BOOK
AU  - McLendon,Michael Locke
TI  - The Psychology of Inequality: Rousseau's "Amour-Propre" 
T2  - Haney Foundation Series
SN  - 9780812295733
AV  - JC179 .M42 2018
U1  - 320.01/9 23
PY  - 2018///]
CY  - Philadelphia : 
PB  - University of Pennsylvania Press, 
KW  - Equality
KW  - Psychological aspects
KW  - Liberalism
KW  - Political psychology
KW  - History
KW  - POLITICAL SCIENCE / History & Theory
KW  - bisacsh
KW  - Cultural Studies
KW  - Literature
KW  - Philosophy
KW  - Political Science
KW  - Public Policy
N1  - Frontmatter --; Contents --; Introduction --; Chapter 1. Being Aristos and the Politics of Aristocracy --; Chapter 2. Amor Sui and Amour- Propre in Augustine and Neo- Augustinianism: Surrogate Virtue or Gateway to Libido Dominandi? --; Chapter 3. Amour- Propre in Rousseau: Subverting the Aristocratic Personality --; Chapter 4. Tocqueville’s Liberal Reply --; Conclusion --; Notes --; Bibliography --; Index --; Acknowledgments; restricted access
N2  - In The Psychology of Inequality, Michael Locke McLendon looks to Jean-Jacques Rousseau's thought for insight into the personal and social pathologies that plague commercial and democratic societies. He emphasizes the way Rousseau appropriated and modified the notion of self-love, or amour-propre, found in Augustine and various early modern thinkers. McLendon traces the concept in Rousseau's work and reveals it to be a form of selfish vanity that mimics aspects of Homeric honor culture and, in the modern world, shapes the outlook of the wealthy and powerful as well as the underlying assumptions of meritocratic ideals.According to McLendon, Rousseau's elucidation of amour-propre describes a desire for glory and preeminence that can be dangerously antisocial, as those who believe themselves superior derive pleasure from dominating and even harming those they consider beneath them. Drawing on Rousseau's insights, McLendon asserts that certain forms of inequality, especially those associated with classical aristocracy and modern-day meritocracy, can corrupt the mindsets and personalities of people in socially disruptive ways.The Psychology of Inequality shows how amour-propre can be transformed into the demand for praise, whether or not one displays praiseworthy qualities, and demonstrates the ways in which this pathology continues to play a leading role in the psychology and politics of modern liberal democracies
UR  - https://doi.org/10.9783/9780812295733
UR  - https://www.degruyter.com/isbn/9780812295733
UR  - https://www.degruyter.com/cover/covers/9780812295733.jpg
ER  -