A philanthropist is a person for whom priority is love and help to another person, as well as his exaltation above other God's creations.

AT modern world The activities of philanthropists are aimed at charity and improving the quality of life of those in need. In ancient times, charity consisted of giving alms to poor people who asked for alms near temples.

The global direction of philanthropy is to improve the quality of life of people around the world. A narrower focus is to selflessly help a neighbor and someone who needs help.

FROM Greek The word "philanthropy" is translated as love for a person. In ancient times, it was translated as divine favor, and a little later, as benevolence.

You can meet the word "philanthropist" on any charity events, which are aimed at helping someone specific or dedicated to a global, world problem.

However, having rendered help to the needy one or several times does not mean that a person can be called a philanthropist.

This title is given if the person renders helping the poor throughout his life, as well as philanthropy occupies a major role in his worldview. This person should be kind-hearted, sympathetic and have good intentions.

Very often people do charity work not out of the best of intentions. Usually rich people do it. Often, vanity and self-love can be the main guides, which cause a feeling of omnipotence. Sometimes such urges are possessed by individuals with a sinful past in order to atone for guilt before higher powers.

Contemporary Philanthropy

In the modern world, philanthropy manifests itself in the form of charitable foundations that are organized under the guidance of indifferent people- philanthropists. These funds organize programs that often have a global idea.

These can be: an organized program for refugees; assistance to people affected by disasters; fundraising for cancer patients; assistance to orphanages and boarding schools and so on.

In some parts of the world, such as the United States, charitable organizations operate on professional level. They go hand in hand with political organizations in the country and work together.

Politicians and benefactors give constant assistance to the poor and the needy, thus rendering a disservice. People stopped relying on their own strength, living independently, earning money and feeding their families. Thanks to endless help, several generations of dependents.

True philanthropists

A distinctive feature of a true philanthropist is the sincerity of his thoughts. He gives out his money without any return and helps those in need. It may seem that the very concept of philanthropy is not inherent in the human individual, because first of all a person takes care of himself and his desires.

But over time, human thinking has changed and, while helping others, there is hope that if trouble happens, then help will come back. Not in vain primitive people formed settlements and united together, because it was more likely to survive.

Humanism is a fundamental feature of a benefactor engaged in charitable activities. The ideal manifestation of philanthropy lies in the totality of acts that are aimed at helping different groups of the population with different problems.

The most famous philanthropists

One of the most famous benefactors in the world is - Bill Gates. He donated about $28 million to charity. He provided his assistance various directions such as famine relief, education, health protection.

The famous singer donated most of the money for many charitable foundations Michael Jackson. He had his own foundation, but he helped 39 more.

Another billionaire who gave about 9 million dollars for the construction of the UN building is John Rockefeller. From early childhood, he contributed 10% of the income of the church, and over time this amount amounted to $ 100 million.

Despite my youth, Mark Zuckerberg provided assistance in the development of education and health care in the amount of 549 million dollars. He also stated that 99% of the shares social network donate to charity. It is worth noting that now the value of the shares has exceeded 45 billion dollars.

And help to the poor, mainly in churches and monasteries. Philanthropy- philanthropy, concern for improving the lot of all mankind.

The philanthropist is contrasted with the misanthrope.

Name origin

The concept of "philanthropy" in Greek means love for people. In the V Art. BC e. it meant divine favor, and in IV Art. n. e. - benevolent attitude towards the person. On the present stage the concept of "philanthropy" began to be actively used in France, from where it was borrowed into our speech.

The word "philanthropy" first appeared in the tragedy of Aeschylus "Prometheus Chained" to refer to divine help to people.

Proverbs and aphorisms about philanthropy

• Philanthropists, carried away by charity, lose all philanthropy. This is their hallmark. (Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray)
• Pure philanthropy is very good, but philanthropy plus five percent per annum is even better. (Cecil Rhodes)

Notable philanthropists

• Arastu Yar Jung was an Indian doctor, a well-known philanthropist who treated the sick poor of the Hyderabad Principality for free and was engaged in various charitable activities.
• Mother Teresa has served the poor, the sick, the orphans, and the needy for over 45 years. At the end of her life, she worked in 610 offices in 123 countries. After her death, she was beatified by Pope John Paul II and received the title of Blessed Libra of Calcutta.
• F.P. Gaaz, a member of the Moscow Prison Committee and chief doctor of Moscow prisons, devoted his life to alleviating the plight of prisoners and exiles. He fought to improve the lives of prisoners: he made sure that the elderly and the sick were freed from shackles; the abolition in Moscow of the iron rod, to which 12 exiles were chained on their way to Siberia; abolition of shaving half the head in women. On his initiative, a prison hospital and a school for the children of prisoners were opened. Constantly received and supplied medicines to poor patients. He fought for the abolition of the right of landowners to exile serfs. All his savings went to charity.
• Stepan Fedak - in 1921 in Lvov he organized the City Committee for the care and assistance of Ukrainian prisoners, internees and political prisoners. The Society provided assistance for emigrants from the Dnieper region.
• Pavel Tretyakov - took part in many charitable acts, paid assistance to families dead soldiers during the Crimean and Russo-Turkish Wars. Tretyakov scholarships were established in commercial schools - Moscow and Alexander. In his will, Pavel Mikhailovich provided for capital for a school for the deaf and dumb. For pupils of the school, in which 150 children lived, Tretyakov bought a large stone house with a garden.
• Bill Gates is the founder of Microsoft. The founder of the world's largest charitable organization, Bill and Melinda Gates, sponsors projects in the field of education and health, allocates funds to fight AIDS and other diseases around the world. He announced that the money accumulated by the Gates spouses will be donated to charity within 50 years after their death. The fortune of only one Bill Gates was estimated by Forbes magazine in 80 billion.
• Michael Jackson - was awarded the Outstanding Contribution to World Culture Award for contributions of hundreds of millions of dollars to 39 charities he supported and his own charitable foundation, Heal the World.
• Evangelis Zappas - known primarily for the fact that in the city he organized and held the first Olympic Games of the new time with his own money.
• John Rockefeller - financed the construction of the Rockefeller Center for the communications industry in New York, donated 9 million for the construction of the UN building. Being a devout man, Rockefeller donated part of his fortune to the church, especially to the needs of the Northern Baptist congregation, of which he was a member.

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An excerpt characterizing the Philanthropist

The doctors began to transfer the bodies to the ambulance, and then the girl was completely at a loss ...
– Vidas, Vidas, they are taking us all!!! But what about us? Why are we here? .. - she did not let up.
The boy stood in a quiet tetanus, not uttering a word, for a brief moment forgetting even about his little sister.
– What should we do now? – the little girl panicked. - Let's go, let's go!!!
“Where?” the boy asked quietly. We have nowhere to go now...
I couldn’t bear it any longer and decided to talk to this unfortunate, clinging to each other, frightened couple of children whom fate suddenly, for no reason, for nothing, threw out into some strange and completely incomprehensible world. And I could only try to imagine how scary and wild it all must have been, especially for this little baby, who still had no idea what death was ...
I approached them closer and quietly, so as not to scare, said:
Let's talk, I can hear you.
– Oh, Vidas, you see, she hears us!!! - the baby squealed. - And who are you? You are nice? Can you tell your mother that we are scared? ..
Words flowed in a continuous stream from her lips, apparently she was very afraid that I would suddenly disappear and she would not have time to say everything. And then she looked at the ambulance again and saw that the activity of the doctors had doubled.
- Look, look, they will take us all away now - but what about us ?!. - the little girl babbled in horror, completely unaware of what was happening.
I felt at a complete dead end, as the first time I encountered children who had just died and had no idea how to explain it all to them. The boy seemed to already understand something, but his sister was so terribly frightened by what was happening that her little heart did not want to understand anything at all ...
For a moment, I was completely lost. I really wanted to calm her down, but I couldn’t find the right words for this, and, afraid of making it worse, I kept silent.
Suddenly, a figure of a man appeared from the ambulance, and I heard one of the nurses shouting to someone: “We are losing, we are losing!”. And I realized that the next to die was apparently the father ...
- Oh, daddy!!! - the girl squealed happily. - And I already thought you left us, and you are here! Oh how good!..
The father, not understanding anything, looked around, when he suddenly saw his wounded body and the doctors fussing around him, grabbed his head with both hands and howled softly ... It was very strange to watch such a big and strong adult man contemplating his death in such wild horror . Or maybe this is how it was supposed to happen? .. Because, unlike children, he just understood that his earthly life was over and nothing more could be done, even with the greatest desire ...
“Daddy, daddy, aren’t you happy? Can you see us? You can, right? .. - the daughter squealed happily, not understanding his despair.
And my father looked at them with such confusion and pain that my heart just broke ...
– My God, you too?!.. And you?.. – was all he could say. - Well, why are you?
In the ambulance, three bodies were already completely covered, and there was no longer any doubt that all these unfortunate people were already dead. So far, only one mother has survived, whose “awakening” I honestly admit, I did not envy at all. After all, seeing that she had lost her entire family, this woman could simply refuse to live.
- Dad, dad, and mom will wake up soon too? - As if nothing had happened, the girl asked happily.
The father stood in complete confusion, but I saw that he was struggling to gather himself in order to somehow calm his little daughter.
- Katenka, dear, mom will not wake up. She will no longer be with us,” my father said as calmly as possible.
- How will it not?! .. Are we all in the same place? We should be together!!! Isn't it? .. - little Katya did not give up.
I realized that it would be very difficult for a father to somehow explain to this little man - his daughter - that life had changed a lot for them and there would be no return to the old world, no matter how much she wanted to ... Father himself was in complete shock and , in my opinion, no less than a daughter needed consolation. The boy was the best so far, although I saw very well that he was also very, very scared. It all happened too suddenly, and none of them were ready for it. But, apparently, some kind of “masculinity instinct” worked for the boy when he saw his “big and strong” dad in such a confused state, and he, poor thing, purely like a man, took over the “reins of government” from the hands of his confused father into his own. small, shaking children's hands...
Before that, I had never seen people (except my grandfather) at the present moment of their death. And it was on that ill-fated evening that I realized how helpless and unprepared people meet the moment of their transition to another world! .. Probably the fear of something completely unknown to them, as well as the view of my body from the outside (but without their presence in it!) , created a real shock for those who did not suspect anything about it, but, unfortunately, already “leaving” people.
- Dad, dad, look - they are taking us away, and mom too! How can we find it now?

Especially often the term "philanthropist" is mentioned in the description of various charitable events or when talking about the founders of non-profit organizations to combat global problems. So, who is a philanthropist - the topic of our article.

To understand what the expression "philanthropist" means, you need to study several aspects. The first consists in the exact translation of this word from the Greek language, which in literal translation means "love" and "person".

As for the more specific meaning of this term, philanthropists are people who are actively involved in charitable activities. But this does not mean that you can become a philanthropist at once, having once donated a certain amount to the poor. The philanthropist must also be an example for others in life, constantly carry in his thoughts and actions the worldview of sympathy and kindness.

Who is a philanthropist in modern society and what does he do?

AT modern society philanthropists, most often manifest themselves by creating charitable foundations, organizing special programs, establishing organizations. Usually they are of a global nature, for example, the fight against cancer, programs for refugees, assistance to victims of the disaster, and so on.

The above activity exposes the concept of “altruist” as a synonym for a philanthropist, since indeed, without pursuing any selfish goals, people simply distribute their hard-earned fortune to needy people.

The historical significance of the phenomenon of "philanthropy"

Many people think that philanthropy is a concept alien to a person, because it is in his nature that, first of all, he must take care of his own interests. This is a widespread erroneous opinion, which was actively developed in the 19th and 20th centuries, when the market economy was actively developing, and the ideology of "consumerism" began to gain more and more popularity.

In fact, philanthropy is a phenomenon that has always accompanied a person on the path of his development. After all, earlier in the wild, a person could survive only by uniting with other people. In such a situation, mutual assistance was important.

The most famous philanthropists in the world

Perhaps the leader of the list of the most famous philanthropists can be called Bill Gates, who has spent up to $ 28 billion over the years. The main directions of its activity are health protection, fight against hunger, education.

The second important person in the field of charity is. He has donated about $25 billion over the years. Buffett did not create his own foundation, but simply joined the activities of Gates.

A well-known philanthropist is George Soros, who gave up to 10 billion dollars to support the institutions of an open society.

Oddly enough, young Mark Zuckerberg also managed to become quite an active philanthropist, having spent more than $549 million to support educational projects.

Famous philanthropists are the Walton family, who donated a total of about $4.6 billion to charity. Basically, their money was directed to the education and support of organic gardening.

The word philanthropist has become very fashionable in last years. It is used by everyone and everywhere, from young people to people who have a lot of life experience behind them. Like any new buzzword, "philanthropist" is doomed to be used with or without a reason. Where it should be, and where its use only confuses the interlocutor.

They use it without understanding the meaning, while they even manage to make a mistake in stress. So, in order to immediately understand the meaning of this word, it is worth saying that a philanthropist is a person who helps those in need.

Do you know why they call me the Hatter?
- Because you wear a hat?
- … No. Because when a hat walks through the rows, I always put something in it. Philanthropy!
Alice in Wonderland

Help for the sake of profit or disinterested help?

The philanthropist is the same person as the most ordinary inhabitant of the planet. It is not defined by any special face shape, body shape, or superpower. He is distinguished by his character, namely, very kind and sympathetic.

He is ready to help everyone and always, without expecting anything in return. It is at this stage that the idea that a philanthropist is a person who, while helping others, pursues some kind of material goal of his own, falls. He does it because he can't help it.

Such a person will not be able to walk next to a person in need of help without trying to help him. He will not say that he is tired at work, or that there is no one around, and no one will see his act, it is enough for him to understand that his actions made someone happy.

At the same time, money and fame do not interest the philanthropist. The only thing that really matters to him is a clear conscience and a kind soul.

Origin of the word

The word "philanthropist" comes from the Greek - "philanthropy", which means love for people. The word philanthropy has its roots in the 5th century BC.

Its primordial meaning was divine favor. Then, in the 4th century AD, the meaning changed into a benevolent attitude towards people.

Already closer to our time, the word philanthropist began to be actively used in France, from where it was borrowed into Russian.

The first written mention of this word is found in Prometheus Chained, the famous tragedy of the ancient Greek playwright Aeschylus. The playwright uses the word "philanthropy" to denote the help of a real deity to ordinary people.

Life philosophy of a philanthropist

Philosophy gives the following definition to the word philanthropist, as an individual who considers a person to be the main creation of God.

Also, the philanthropist has such an idea that man is the crown of evolution, and considers him an ideal being. In support of this theory, philanthropists try not to focus on negative traits character of a person. On the contrary, it always exalts the dignity of the human race and their greatness.

The real character of a philanthropist

Previously, philanthropists have been described to the marrow of their bones in ideal conditions. In real life, you don't see them. That is why the word "philanthropist" is defined as a person who devotes all his free time to gratuitous help to those who need it.

In addition, the philanthropist does not charge for the assistance provided. Also, his help does not mean that he does not understand people, that he does not see them. negative traits character, or that he loves everyone.

His kindness is a sign of personal reasons. They can be driven by both pride and vanity. Also, do not forget about the idea of ​​greatness, omnipotence, perfection. It is not uncommon to see philanthropists who have become so in order to atone for a certain passage of life when they think they have sinned.

Reasons why people become philanthropists

• Striving for balance between good and bad people;
• The desire to leave your name in history;
• Because of some action that a person considers a sin;
• From the desire to help others;
• Because of the thinking that all people should help each other.

There are many definitions of the word philanthropist, and none of them can fully explain and describe the character traits of a real philanthropist, and his behavior in different situations.

That is why, most often, the word "philanthropist" is used with the opposite meaning of the word "". That is, if a misanthrope is an individual who hates people, then a philanthropist is a person for whom love for people comes first.

If charity cost nothing, everyone would be philanthropists.
Jewish proverbs and sayings

Conclusion

For centuries, philosophers have speculated on the subject of philanthropy. Their ideas differed on this, but they agreed on one thing, a philanthropist is kind person who helps all those in need, without any benefit, simply because his nature is like that.

But, they did not take into account the fact that such a person can only exist in a utopia, and in our non-ideal world, a philanthropist is not necessarily a kind person. Yes, he helps those who are in trouble, but he does it out of personal conviction and in order to assert himself.

Question to the reader

Which is better in terms of morality: a person who considers himself omnipotent in relation to other people, but does not hide it, or a person who considers himself omnipotent in relation to other people, but hides this character trait under the mask of a real philanthropist?

A, m. philanthrope m. One who is engaged in philanthropy, charity. ALS 1. The painter would have thought his head too big; but the Philanthropist would have found in her education some signs of prudent philanthropy. Karamzin Translations 6 101.… … Historical Dictionary of Gallicisms of the Russian Language

- (Greek, this. See philanthropy). A person dedicated to philanthropy, concerned with improving the lot of people. Dictionary of foreign words included in the Russian language. Chudinov A.N., 1910. PHILANTHROP in Greek; for etymology, see philanthropy. ... ... Dictionary of foreign words of the Russian language

PHILANTHROP, philanthropist, husband. A person inclined towards philanthropy, engaged in philanthropy. Explanatory Dictionary of Ushakov. D.N. Ushakov. 1935 1940 ... Explanatory Dictionary of Ushakov

PHILANTHROP, a, husband. A person who is engaged in philanthropy. | female philanthropist, and Explanatory dictionary of Ozhegov. S.I. Ozhegov, N.Yu. Shvedova. 1949 1992 ... Explanatory dictionary of Ozhegov

- (Greek philanthropies) a person engaged in charitable activities. Raizberg B.A., Lozovsky L.Sh., Starodubtseva E.B. Modern economic dictionary. 2nd ed., rev. M .: INFRA M. 479 s .. 1999 ... Economic dictionary

- (from Greek φιλέω, "to love" and Greek ἄνθρωπος, "man") a person involved in charity work to help those in need. The oldest form charity is almsgiving and helping the poor, mainly at churches and monasteries. ... ... Wikipedia

Charitable person... Encyclopedic Dictionary of Economics and Law

I m. 1. An adherent of philanthropism [philanthropism I]. 2. Representative of philanthropy [philanthropism I]. II m. 1. The one who is engaged in philanthropy. 2. outdated. Humanitarian. Explanatory Dictionary of Ephraim. T. F. Efremova. 2000... Modern dictionary Russian language Efremova

Philanthropist, philanthropists, philanthropist, philanthropists, philanthropist, philanthropists, philanthropist, philanthropists, philanthropist, philanthropists, philanthropist, philanthropists (Source: "Full accentuated paradigm according to A. A. Zaliznyak") ... Forms of words

Books

• , Nevins Allan. In this book, the author Allan Nevins analyzes the multifaceted, but at the same time, in a certain sense, limited personality of John D. Rockefeller. Childhood years, extraordinary parents, the beginning ...
• John D. Rockefeller. Industrialist and Philanthropist, Nevins A. In this book, author Allan Nevins analyzes the multifaceted yet somewhat limited personality of John D. Rockefeller. Childhood years, extraordinary parents, the beginning ...