Term used by La Rochefoucauld, and then Rousseau for a concern with one’s comparative well-being: one’s status or position measured against that of other people. For Rousseau such a concern is poisoned with vanity and envy. It is never present ‘without arousing some measure of hatred against those who dispute our claim to the first place, were it only in our own estimation’ and is responsible for many of the ills of society. It is contrasted with legitimate self-concern, or amour-de-soi.