P. Kropotkin

a factor of evolution

Mutual Aid

Two aspects of animal life impressed me most during the journeys which I made in my youth in Eastern Siberia and Northern Manchuria. One of them was the extreme severity of the struggle for existence which most species of animals have to carry on against an inclement Nature; the enormous destruction of life which periodically results from natural agencies; and the consequent paucity of life over the vast territory which fell under my observation.

Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution is a book written by Peter Kropotkin and originally published as a series of articles in a British literary magazine. Kropotkin was a well-known zoologist, evolutionary theorist, and communist, and his ideas often challenged those of Charles Darwin. Mutual Aid is Kropotkin's examination of mutual aid, a theory of social organization that championed cooperation and reciprocation between members of a species for the betterment of the group. Kropotkin's view challenged the beliefs of Social Darwinists, who believed competition between members of a species inherently promoted evolution and survival of the group. Kropotkin begins his book with an examination of mutual aid in the animal kingdom, where he includes examples of ants, bees, birds, large cats, wolves, and more. Kropotkin continues with a discussion of mutual aid in human societies, examining both ancient civilizations as well as modern humans. The book concludes with an appendix and detailed index. Kropotkin's work is a fascinating read and presents a theory every bit as worthy of consideration as Darwinism. The author does not deny the importance of competition in the advancement of a species, but rather argues that cooperation and mutual aid have been underappreciated aspects of man's proliferation on Earth. Kropotkin argues for the local production of food and the self-sufficiency of nations - principals that many Westerners of the twenty-first century advocate for as well. Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution presents an important and often under considered theory on the development of species. Whether you sympathize with his viewpoints or not, Kropotkin was certainly a brilliant man, and one that deserves to be widely read. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

A Factor of Evolution (Classic Reprint)

Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution is a 1902 essay collection by Russian anarchist philosopher Peter Kropotkin. The essays, initially published in the English periodical The Nineteenth Century between 1890 and 1896, explore the role of mutually-beneficial cooperation and reciprocity (or "mutual aid") in the animal kingdom and human societies both past and present. It is an argument against the competition-centred theories of so-called social Darwinism, as well as the romantic depictions of cooperation presented by writers such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who argued it was motivated by universal love rather than self-interest. Mutual Aid is considered a fundamental text in anarchist communism, presenting a scientific basis for communism alternative to the historical materialism of the Marxists. Many biologists also consider it an important catalyst in the scientific study of cooperation.

A Factor of Evolution

Petr Alekseevich Kropotkin, Kne

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The Conquest of Bread. [New York and London]

Petr Alekseevich Kropotkin, Kn'

Sociability and need of mutual aid and support are such inherent parts of human nature that at no time of history can we discover men living in small isolated families, fighting each other for the means of subsistence. On the contrary, modern research, as we saw it in the two preceding chapters, proves that since the very beginning of their prehistoric life men used to agglomerate into gentes, clans, or tribes, maintained by an idea of common descent and by worship of common ancestors.

Prince Peter (Pyotr) Alexeyevich Kropotkin (1842-1921) was one of Russia's foremost anarchists and one of the first advocates of anarchist communism. The model of society he advocated for most of his life was that of a communalist society free from central government. Because of his title of prince and his prominence as an anarchist in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, he was known by some as "the Anarchist Prince." Some contemporaries saw him as leading a near perfect life. Oscar Wilde called him "the new Christ coming out of Russia. " His most prominent scientific offering was Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution (1902). He also left behind many books, pamphlets and articles amongst which are Fields, Factories and Workshops (1912) and The Conquest of Bread (1892).

The Conquest of Bread

Mutual Aid A Factor of Evolution By P. Kropotkin Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution is a book by Peter Kropotkin on the subject of mutual aid, written while he was living in exile in England. It was first published by William Heinemann in London in October 1902. The individual chapters had originally been published in 1890–96 as a series of essays in the British monthly literary magazine, Nineteenth Century. Written partly in response to Social Darwinism and in particular to Thomas H. Huxley's Nineteenth Century essay, "The Struggle for Existence", Kropotkin's book drew on his experiences in scientific expeditions in Siberia to illustrate the phenomenon of cooperation. After examining the evidence of cooperation in nonhuman animals, in pre-feudal societies and medieval cities, and in modern times, he concluded that cooperation and mutual aid are the most important factors in the evolution of species and the ability to survive. 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." Kropotkin pointed out the distinction between the direct struggle among individuals for limited resources (generally called competition) and the more metaphorical struggle between organisms and the environment (tending to be cooperative). He therefore did not deny the competitive form of struggle, but argued that the cooperative counterpart has been underemphasized: "There is an immense amount of warfare and extermination going on amidst various species; there is, at the same time, as much, or perhaps even more, of mutual support, mutual aid, and mutual defense...Sociability is as much a law of nature as mutual struggle." However, Kropotkin did consider cooperation as a feature of the most advanced organisms (e.g., ants among insects, mammals among vertebrates) leading to the development of the highest intelligence and bodily organization.

P. Kropotkin

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