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Peter Kropotkin initially published the chapters of Mutual Aid as individual essays in the intellectual periodical The Nineteenth Century over the course of six years. In 1902 the essays were published as a book.
In it, Kropotkin explores the role of mutually-beneficial cooperation across both animal and human societies. He begins by outlining how animals, both within and across species, thrive not through individual fitness, but rather through mutual cooperation. He then extends the breadth of his study to ancient human societies across generations and nations, until arriving at modern society, which he suggests has largely dispensed with the ancient benefits of mutual aid in favor of private property, capitalism, and social Darwinism.
Though more of a philosophical work than a scientific work, many of Kropotkin’s observations of the animal kingdom are considered to be scientifically accurate today, with Douglas H. Boucher calling Mutual Aid a precursor to the theory of biological altruism.
As a philosophical work Mutual Aid, along with his other work The Conquest of Bread, is recognized as a foundational text of the anarcho-communist political philosophy.
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Previews available in: English Russian Yiddish German
Subjects
Social institutions, Cooperation, Social groups, Sociology, Common good, Consensus (Social sciences), Mutualism, Sociologie, Groupes sociaux, Coopération, Associations, institutions, Evolution, Association and associations, Public welfare, History, Social evolution, Social justice, Mutualisme (Économie politique)Showing 11 featured editions. View all 121 editions?
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Mutual aid: a factor of evolution / Peter Kropotkin.
2006, Dover Publications
in English
0486449130 9780486449135
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Vzaimnai͡a pomoshchʹ sredi zhivotnykh i li͡udeĭ, kak dvigatelʹ progressa
1922, Knigoizdatelʹstvo "Golos truda"
in Russian
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Gegenzayṭige hilf bay ḥayes un menshen: als a faḳṭor fun enṭṿiḳlung
1913, Ḳropoṭḳin liṭeraṭur-gezelshafṭ
in Yiddish
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Gegenseitige Hilfe in der Tier- und Menschenwelt
1908, Theod. Thomas
in German
- Unverkürzte Volksausg.
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Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution is a 1902 collection of anthropological essays by Russian naturalist and 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 theories of social Darwinism that emphasize competition and survival of the fittest, and against the romantic depictions by writers such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who thought that cooperation was motivated by universal love. Instead Kropotkin argues that mutual aid has pragmatic advantages for the survival of human and animal communities and, along with the conscience, has been promoted through natural selection.
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 poor folk. He criticizes the State for destroying historically important mutual aid institutions, particularly through the imposition of private property.
Many biologists also consider it an important catalyst in the scientific study of cooperation.
(Source: Wikipedia)
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March 16, 2024 | Edited by bitnapper | merge authors |
December 30, 2022 | Edited by raybb | merge authors |
March 5, 2022 | Edited by Gustav-Landauer-Bibliothek Witten | Merge works |
February 8, 2022 | Created by ImportBot | Imported from standard_ebooks:peter-kropotkin record |