Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution
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Author | Peter Kropotkin |
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Language | English |
Subject | mutual aid |
Published | 1902 |
Publisher | McClure Phillips & Co. |
Part of a series on |
Anarchist communism |
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Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution is a 1902 collection of anthropological essays by Russian
Mutual Aid is considered a fundamental text in anarchist communism. It presents a scientific basis for communism as an alternative to the historical materialism of the Marxists. Kropotkin considers the importance of mutual aid for prosperity and survival in the animal kingdom, in indigenous and early European societies, in the medieval free cities (especially through the guilds), and in the late 19th century village, labor movement, and impoverished people. He criticizes the State for destroying historically important mutual aid institutions, particularly through the imposition of private property.
Many biologists[1][2] (including Stephen Jay Gould, one of the most influential evolutionary biologists of his generation) also consider it an important catalyst in the scientific study of cooperation.[3]
Reception
Daniel P. Todes, in his account of Russian naturalism in the 19th century, concludes that Kropotkin's work "cannot be dismissed as the idiosyncratic product of an anarchist dabbling in biology" and that his views "were but one expression of a broad current in Russian evolutionary thought that pre-dated, indeed encouraged, his work on the subject and was by no means confined to leftist thinkers."[4]
Kropotkin emphasizes the distinction between competitive struggle between individual organisms over limited resources and collective struggle between organisms and the environment. He drew from his firsthand observations of
As a description of biology, Kropotkin's perspective is consistent with contemporary understanding.
Editions
- Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution (1955 paperback (reprinted 2005) ed.). Thomas H. Huxley
- Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution (2009 paperback ed.). London: ISBN 978-1-90449-110-1.
See also
- A Darwinian Left: Politics, Evolution and Cooperation
- Ethology
- Evolutionary anthropology
- Psychological egoism
- List of books about anarchism
References
- ^ a b Gould, Stephen Jay (June 1988). "Kropotkin was no crackpot". Natural History. No. 106. pp. 12–21.
- ^ ISBN 9780709932383.
- ^ Syson, Lydia (26 October 2020). "The radical aristocrat who put kindness on a scientific footing". Psyche.
- ^ Todes, Daniel P. (1989). Darwin Without Malthus: The Struggle for Existence in Russian Evolutionary Thought. Oxford University Press. pp. 104, 123.
- ^ Kropotkin, Peter (1902). Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution, Chapter I
External links
- Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution, the original edition at archive.org
- Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution at The Anarchist Library
- Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution at Libcom.org
- Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution at Standard Ebooks
- Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution at Project Gutenberg
- Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution – HTML version at the Anarchy Archives
- Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution – Plain PDF version at the RevoltLib
- Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution public domain audiobook at LibriVox
- Paul Mattick, Kropotkin on Mutual Aid — Review, 1956.
- Iain McKay, Mutual Aid: An Introduction and Evaluation, AK Press, Edinburgh, 2010.