Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution

MP3 Audio CD. Being known primarily as a theorist of anarchist communism and a former Russian prince, Peter Kropotkin wrote Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution while he was exiled in Britain as a response to social Darwinism. The essay was first published in chapters between 1890 and 1896 in Nineteenth Century, one of Britain?s most prestigious literary magazines and it first came out in book form in 1902.

Kropotkin based the ideas in his book on the observations of humans and animal species he made during his expeditions to Siberia and Manchuria. The principle he uses as the foundation of his theory is that of cooperation ? according to Kropotkin, it is mutual aid and cooperation that plays the most important role in the success and the evolution of species, the ability to help each other being one of the most important factors that determine the ability to survive.

Darwinism sustains that the struggle for resources is the main driving force behind evolution, but Kropotkin argues that mutual support and mutual help are much more important factors. However, the author focuses not so much on the competition among different species as on the competition within one species and the development of the internal hierarchy.

Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution is a thorough work, backed up with extensive scientific research. The author cites numerous sources, studies carried out on groups of animals as well as essays about human behavior and he provides a long and very impressive list of human endeavors and undertakings to prove that mutual aid is an instinct present in the most successful species on Earth. He also argues that social sensitivity and the responsibility to help the less fortunate are manifestations of the instinct to provide mutual aid ? staying alive is easier for those who work together and in Kropotkin?s argument, this principle is recognized by all species on Earth that have been and will be able to survive and to thrive.