Product Description

Short excerpt: Paucity of life under-population¿not over-population¿being the distinctive feature of that immense part of the globe which we name Northern Asia I conceived since then serious doubts¿which subsequent study has only confirmed¿as to the reality of that fearful competition for food and life within each species which was an article of faith with most Darwinists...

Product Details

• Published on: 2006-12-29
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

Customer Reviews

Mandatory for any interested in any humanity or science.
This book shows how Darwin's findings were all too influenced by Malthus and were a direct reflection of the Capitalistic political area he was from. Kropotkin witnessed in Siberia that animals rather than competing to stay alive, had to work together to stay alive.

Kropotkin stresses that cooperation is the main factor in evolution, not competing forces that Darwin and his contemporaries thought.

Kropotkin gives a number of examples of inter and intra-species working together to survive and thus evolve.

Kropotkin explores a number of societies. Steven J. Gould has given credence to Kropotkin, yet he is largely ignored in evolution texts.

This book changed the way I think about evolution and helped me to realize how a study as influencial as Darwin's could be biased.

Shredding our cultural bias about nature
Anarchist classic, rooted in observation of natural phenomena and history. Challenges the conception that capitalism is a natural progression of Darwinism at work in the wild. The author cites numerous examples of compassion and innate goodness at work outside the bounds of a structured power-based society. The study covers cooperation among animals, instances of non-hierachical interactions from primitive tribes to mediaeval cities, and on to his contemporary labor unions. It has been some years since I read it and I plan to revisit this title soon.

An essential counterpoint to Darwin's "The Origin of Species
After groping for years - haphazardly, I admit - through almost every progressive, liberal, libertarian, and anarchist zone of political discourse, I stumbled across a reference to Mutual Aid and its author, (Prince) Petr Kropotkin. Like Darwin, Kropotkin spent considerable time in a part of the world not frequented by civilized folk; instead of a tropic isle, though, Kropotkin spent his time in Siberia. There he saw and was impressed by something Darwin had discounted (assuming he ever noticed it) - co-operation, rather than competition. In some cases it was the family, taking the place fo the individual in the scheme of species survival; in others, it took the form of symbiotic relationships between individual members of different species. Like Darwin, Kropotkin was intellectually stimulated by his observations in natural philosophy - but in exactly the opposite direction. I recommend "Mutual Aid" to anyone exhausted by the competitve paradigm and looking for a valid alternative. I'm writing this after ordering two more copies of MA - one to replace the one I lost, another to lend. Eric C. Sanders