It is in Rousseau's writing above all that history begins to turn from upper-class honour to middle-class humanitarianism. Pity sympathy and compassion lie at the centre of his moral vision. Values associated with the feminine begin to infiltrate social existence as a whole rather than being confined to the domestic sphere.

A person who has sympathy for mankind in the lump faith in its future progress and desire to serve the great cause of this progress should be called not a humanist but a humanitarian and his creed may be designated as humanitarianism.