It’s not surprising that we can find some of the seminal ideas about citizen dignity and universal recognition, even if not in these specific terms, in Rousseau, whom I have wanted to identify as one of the points of origin of the modern discourse of authenticity. Rousseau is a sharp critic of hierarchical honor, of “préférences.” In a significant passage of the Discourse on Inequality, he pinpoints a fateful moment when society takes a turn toward corruption and injustice, when people begin to desire preferential esteem.11 By contrast, in republican society, where all can share equally in the light of public attention, he sees the source of health. But the topic of recognition is given its most influential early treatment in Hegel.