Mutual Aid: A Factor of EvolutionKropotkin, Petr Alekseevich, kniaz
Science
Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution
Kropotkin, Petr Alekseevich, kniaz
Cooperation; Social groups; Social institutions
Of works dealing with nearly the same subject, which have been published
since the publication of my articles on Mutual Aid among Animals, I must
mention The Lowell Lectures on the Ascent of Man, by Henry Drummond
(London, 1894), and The Origin and Growth of the Moral Instinct, by A.
Sutherland (London, 1898). Both are constructed chiefly on the lines
taken in Buchner's Love, and in the second work the parental and
familial feeling as the sole influence at work in the development of the
moral feelings has been dealt with at some length. A third work dealing
with man and written on similar lines is The Principles of Sociology, by
Prof. F.A. Giddings, the first edition of which was published in 1896 at
New York and London, and the leading ideas of which were sketched by the
author in a pamphlet in 1894. I must leave, however, to literary critics
the task of discussing the points of contact, resemblance, or divergence
between these works and mine.
The different chapters of this book were published first in the
Nineteenth Century ("Mutual Aid among Animals," in September and
November 1890; "Mutual Aid among Savages," in April 1891; "Mutual Aid
among the Barbarians," in January 1892; "Mutual Aid in the Medieval
City," in August and September 1894; and "Mutual Aid amongst Modern
Men," in January and June 1896). In bringing them out in a book form my
first intention was to embody in an Appendix the mass of materials, as
well as the discussion of several secondary points, which had to be
omitted in the review articles. It appeared, however, that the Appendix
would double the size of the book, and I was compelled to abandon, or,
at least, to postpone its publication. The present Appendix includes the
discussion of only a few points which have been the matter of scientific
controversy during the last few years; and into the text I have
introduced only such matter as could be introduced without altering the
structure of the work.
I am glad of this opportunity for expressing to the editor of the
Nineteenth Century, Mr. James Knowles, my very best thanks, both for the
kind hospitality which he offered to these papers in his review, as soon
as he knew their general idea, and the permission he kindly gave me to
reprint them.
Bromley, Kent, 1902.
CHAPTER I
MUTUAL AID AMONG ANIMALS
Struggle for existence. Mutual Aid a law of Nature and chief factor of
progressive evolution. Invertebrates. Ants and Bees. Birds, hunting and
fishing associations. Sociability. Mutual protection among small birds.
Cranes, parrots.
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