Editing Peter Kropotkin (section)

=== Cooperation and competition ===
In 1902, Kropotkin published his book ''[[Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution]]'', which gave an alternative view of animal and human survival. At the time, some proponents of "[[Social Darwinism]]" such as [[Francis Galton]] proffered a theory of interpersonal competition and natural hierarchy. Instead, Kropotkin argued that "it was an evolutionary emphasis on cooperation instead of competition in the Darwinian sense that made for the success of species, including the human".<ref name="Sale">[[Kirkpatrick Sale|Sale, Kirkpatrick]] (1 July 2010) [http://www.amconmag.com/article/2010/jul/01/00045/ Are Anarchists Revolting?] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101212113034/http://amconmag.com/article/2010/jul/01/00045/ |date=12 December 2010 }}, ''[[The American Conservative]]''</ref> In the last chapter, he wrote:

{{blockquote|In the animal world we have seen that the vast majority of species live in societies, and that they find in association the best arms for the struggle for life: understood, of course, in its wide Darwinian sense – not as a struggle for the sheer means of existence, but as a struggle against all natural conditions unfavourable to the species. 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. The mutual protection which is obtained in this case, the possibility of attaining old age and of accumulating experience, the higher intellectual development, and the further growth of sociable habits, secure the maintenance of the species, its extension, and its further progressive evolution. The unsociable species, on the contrary, are doomed to decay.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kropotkin, Peter |url=http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Kropotkin#Mutual_Aid:_A_Factor_of_Evolution_.281902.29 |title=quotation from ''Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution'' |year=1902 |access-date=May 31, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190316091205/https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Kropotkin#Mutual_Aid:_A_Factor_of_Evolution_.281902.29 |archive-date=March 16, 2019 |url-status=live}}</ref>}}

Contrary to popular belief, he did not deny the existence of selfishness or competitive struggle among organisms in nature, that is, "mutual struggle". He viewed cooperation and sociability among members of the same species as the best means to survive.<ref name="Kropotkin & McCay 2018">{{cite book |last=Kropotkin |first=Petr Alekseevich |chapter=Introduction |chapter-url={{GBurl |id=n3s5DwAAQBAJ |pg=PT3}} |editor-last=McKay |editor-first=Iain |title=Modern Science and Anarchy |publisher=AK Press |publication-place=La Vergne |year=2018 |isbn=978-1-84935-275-8 |oclc=1030822849 |quote=Passage surrounding "Kropotkin was well aware that the drive for cooperation rested on the 'selfish' desire to survive."}}</ref>

Biologist [[Stephen Jay Gould]] argued that Kropotkin's view was consistent with modern biological understanding. He agrees with Kropotkin's observations, noting that while Kropotkin did not deny the concept of competitive struggle, he believed that cooperative interactions were too often overlooked within it. He also points out that if cooperation increases the survival rate of an individual, there is no reason why it should be ruled out by natural selection, but rather, as he said, encouraged.<ref name=Gould>{{cite magazine|last=Gould |first=Stephen Jay |date=June 1988 |title=Kropotkin was no crackpot |magazine=[[Natural History (magazine)|Natural History]] |number=106 |pages=12–21 |url=http://www.marxists.org/subject/science/essays/kropotkin.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250303084502/http://www.marxists.org/subject/science/essays/kropotkin.htm |archive-date=2025-03-03 |url-status=live}}</ref>

Kropotkin did not deny the presence of competitive urges in humans, but did not consider them the driving force of [[human history]].<ref name="Gallaher">{{Cite book |last1=Gallaher |first1=Carolyn |title=Key Concepts in Political Geography |last2=Dahlman |first2=Carl T. |last3=Gilmartin |first3=Mary |last4=Mountz |first4=Alison |last5=Shirlow |first5=Peter |date=2009 |publisher=SAGE |isbn=9781412946728 |location=London |page=392 |author-link=Carolyn Gallaher}}</ref> He believed that seeking out conflict proved to be socially beneficial only in attempts to destroy [[injustice]], as well as [[authoritarian]] institutions such as the [[state (polity)|state]] or the [[Russian Orthodox Church]], which he saw as stifling human creativity and impeding human instinctual drive towards [[cooperation]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Vucinich |first=Alexander |title=Darwin in Russian Thought |publisher=University of California Press |year=1988 |isbn=9780520062832 |page=349}}</ref>

Kropotkin claimed that the benefits arising from [[mutual organization]] incentivizes humans more than mutual strife. His hope was that in the long run, mutual organization would drive individuals to [[Production (economics)|produce]]. [[Anarcho-primitivists]] and [[anarcho-communists]] believe that a [[gift economy]] can break the cycle of [[poverty]]. They rely on Kropotkin, who believed that the [[hunter-gatherer]]s he had visited implemented mutual aid.  
<ref>{{Cite book |last=Roy |first=Debarati |title=The Power of Money |publisher=Vij Books India Private Limited |year=2012 |isbn=9789382573173 |page=201}}</ref>