ABSTRACT
The word philanthropia supports a number of different meanings. EST lists a range running from ‘love of men, humanitas’ to ‘the laws of friendship and hospitality’. LSJ define it as ‘humanity, benevolence, kind-heartedness, humane feeling or, in a weaker sense, kindliness, courtesy’.1 In antiquity Diogenes Laertius defined three kinds of philanthropia: the kind based on names, as when one greets someone with a name and a handshake; the kind based on giving help to every unfortunate; and the kind based on convivial encounters with boon companions.2 EST notes another important aspect: ‘Philanthropia is not only the goodwill of superiors towards inferiors, such as a god’s towards us, a king’s towards his subjects, or a magistrate’s towards his subordinates, but also anyone’s friendship or affection for another.’ There is a hierarchy, at the upper levels of which it is not so much a question of friendship and affection as of an obligation to treat inferiors properly. The hierarchy was visible to Plato.3
