Hosseini is 48 – not exactly Methuselan then, but old enough to look back on his first two novels and see a different writer: a writer for whom cruelty and benevolence were very much two different colours.
Hence, there is a sense of duty attached to it, whereas the very word 'philanthropy' implies benevolence, charity, and in no way a requirement.
"There appears in his natural temper," wrote his contemporary, the philosopher George Berkeley, "something very generous and a great benevolence to mankind".
Greece contends, implausibly, that it requires no additional loans from the euro zone, yet at the very least it needs the benevolence of the ECB.
Writes Cohen: "That would seem to have benevolence tied to its very nature.
Though he tries to conform to the worker-ant society, he feels alienated from the very atmosphere of Novilla — a generalized "benevolence," "a cloud of good will".
However, in Chinese families, an affectionate father is not very common (Ho 1987), possibly because benevolence undermines authority and the two are difficult to reconcile in one person (Cheng 1995).
The survey indicates that consumers presented strong egalitarian values, such as benevolence and universalism, and very positive attitudes towards environment and technological progress, as well as a positive attitude and intention to buy eco-innovative food.
"Doing so offers a very potent, secular way to cultivate benevolence and promote a more altruistic society, while cultivating mindfulness at all times.
His Cicero is a Clinton or a Blair: an ambitious provincial, a lawyer with political aspirations and aided by a strong and opinionated wife, starting out with neither wealth nor powerful friends; a man of shifting ideological conviction but confident of his own benevolence, assiduous, driven and in love with the very process of politics.
