Peter Kropotkin
Russian anarchist political philosopher and geographer (1842 to 1921), a proponent of anarchist communism; lived in exile in England from 1886 to 1917; author of Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution (1902).
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What they believe
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That a pitiless war within each species is a condition of progress is unproved and unconfirmed by direct observation
This view, however, I could not accept, because I was persuaded that to admit a pitiless inner war for life within each species, and to see in that war a condition of progress, was to admit something which not only had not yet been proved, but also lacked confirmation from direct observation.
gutenberg.orgSaid c. 1902This on korrents
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That a pitiless war within each species is a condition of progress is unproved and unconfirmed by direct observation
This view, however, I could not accept, because I was persuaded that to admit a pitiless inner war for life within each species, and to see in that war a condition of progress, was to admit something which not only had not yet been proved, but also lacked confirmation from direct observation.
Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution (1902) Said c. 1902
What moves a person to help a neighbour whose house is on fire is a wide instinct of human solidarity, not love
It is not love to my neighbour—whom I often do not know at all—which induces me to seize a pail of water and to rush towards his house when I see it on fire; it is a far wider, even though more vague feeling or instinct of human solidarity and sociability which moves me.
Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution (1902) Said c. 1902
Human society rests not on love or sympathy but on an awareness, even if only instinctive, of human solidarity
But it is not love and not even sympathy upon which Society is based in mankind. It is the conscience—be it only at the stage of an instinct—of human solidarity.
Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution (1902) Said c. 1902
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The war of each against all is not the law of nature; mutual aid is as much a law of nature as mutual struggle
As seen from the above, the war of each against all is not the law of nature. Mutual aid is as much a law of nature as mutual struggle, and that law will become still more apparent when we have analyzed some other associations of birds and those of the mammalia.
Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution (1902) Said c. 1890–1902
Life in society is what enables parrots to reach their very high, almost human intelligence and feelings
There can be no doubt that it is the practice of life in society which enables the parrots to attain that very high level of almost human intelligence and almost human feelings which we know in them.
Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution (1902) Said c. 1890–1902
If evolution rested mainly on the survival of the fittest through calamities, the animal world would go backward
But if the evolution of the animal world were based exclusively, or even chiefly, upon the survival of the fittest during periods of calamities; if natural selection were limited in its action to periods of exceptional drought, or sudden changes of temperature, or inundations, retrogression would be the rule in the animal world.
Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution (1902) Said c. 1890–1902
Competition is not the rule among animals or among humans; among animals it is limited to exceptional periods
Happily enough, competition is not the rule either in the animal world or in mankind. It is limited among animals to exceptional periods, and natural selection finds better fields for its activity.
Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution (1902) Said c. 1890–1902
Nature tends, though not always fully, toward avoiding competition, which is always harmful to the species
"Don't compete!—competition is always injurious to the species, and you have plenty of resources to avoid it!" That is the tendency of nature, not always realized in full, but always present.
Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution (1902) Said c. 1890–1902
It would contradict all we know of nature if defenceless early humans had progressed by reckless competition rather than mutual support
It is evident that it would be quite contrary to all that we know of nature if men were an exception to so general a rule: if a creature so defenceless as man was at his beginnings should have found his protection and his way to progress, not in mutual support, like other animals, but in a reckless competition for personal advantages, with no regard to the interests of the species.
Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution (1902) Said c. 1890–1902
The documents historians rely on exaggerate the part of human life given to struggle and underrate its peaceful side
Leaving aside the preconceived ideas of most historians and their pronounced predilection for the dramatic aspects of history, we see that the very documents they habitually peruse are such as to exaggerate the part of human life given to struggles and to underrate its peaceful moods. The bright and sunny days are lost sight of in the gales and storms.
Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution (1902) Said c. 1890–1902
Sociability is so inherent in human nature that no period of history shows people living as isolated families fighting for subsistence
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.
Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution (1902) Said c. 1890–1902
Broadly, human ethical progress is the gradual extension of mutual aid from the tribe toward the whole of humanity
New economical and social institutions, in so far as they were a creation of the masses, new ethical systems, and new religions, all have originated from the same source, and the ethical progress of our race, viewed in its broad lines, appears as a gradual extension of the mutual-aid principles from the tribe to always larger and larger agglomerations, so as to finally embrace one day the whole of mankind, without respect to its divers creeds, languages, and races.
Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution (1902) Said c. 1890–1902
Neither the centralized State nor teachings of pitiless struggle could uproot the feeling of human solidarity
In short, neither the crushing powers of the centralized State nor the teachings of mutual hatred and pitiless struggle which came, adorned with the attributes of science, from obliging philosophers and sociologists, could weed out the feeling of human solidarity, deeply lodged in men's understanding and heart, because it has been nurtured by all our preceding evolution.
Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution (1902) Said c. 1890–1902
Animal species with the least individual struggle and the most mutual aid are invariably the most numerous and prosperous
The animal species, in which individual struggle has been reduced to its narrowest limits, and the practice of mutual aid has attained the greatest development, are invariably the most numerous, the most prosperous, and the most open to further progress.
Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution (1902) Said c. 1890–1902
History as written so far describes almost only how theocracy, military power, autocracy and the rich came to rule
History, such as it has hitherto been written, is almost entirely a description of the ways and means by which theocracy, military power, autocracy, and, later on, the richer classes' rule have been promoted, established, and maintained.
Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution (1902) Said c. 1890–1902
For industrial progress, mutual aid and close contact are much more advantageous than mutual struggle
For industrial progress, as for each other conquest over nature, mutual aid and close intercourse certainly are, as they have been, much more advantageous than mutual struggle.
Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution (1902) Said c. 1890–1902
Mutual aid is the origin of human ethics, and mutual support rather than struggle has led moral progress
In the practice of mutual aid, which we can retrace to the earliest beginnings of evolution, we thus find the positive and undoubted origin of our ethical conceptions; and we can affirm that in the ethical progress of man, mutual support not mutual struggle—has had the leading part.
Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution (1902) Said c. 1890–1902
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