Abstract
The concept of human nature implies the existence of something objective in that it concerns features that are held to characterise the human being as such. These essential features can then be used to explain human psychology and behaviour. Yet our access to human nature, assuming that there is such a thing, has a subjective dimension in so far as the identification of these features is undertaken from the standpoint of the individual who infers what they are, both from his or her own thoughts and behaviour and from the thoughts and behaviour of others. I highlight this subjective dimension and use it to show how a theory of human nature can function as a type of self-justification by examining Rousseau’s claims concerning the value of his own autobiography, the Confessions, as a guide to human nature in connection with one incident described in it. This incident reflects the primacy of self-love in relation to pity that follows from Rousseau’s theory of human nature.
