Who wrote the book Mutual Aid to show that cooperation within a species was a significant factor in evolution?

Peter Kropotkin
Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution: Peter Kropotkin: 9780875580241: Amazon.com: Books.

When was mutual aid written?

1897
In Mutual Aid (1897) he drew on Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution to argue that, contrary to popular notions of social Darwinism, the groups that prospered in evolutionary terms were those that practiced cooperation.

What mutual aid means?

Mutual aid is a form of solidarity-based support, in which communities unite against a common struggle, rather than leaving individuals to fend for themselves.

What did Peter Kropotkin say about mutual aid?

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.

Why was mutual aid a factor of evolution?

In this book, Peter Kropotkin sets out to demonstrate the importance of cooperation (“mutual aid”) within species and within human societies. Kropotkin, writing in the 1890s, was concerned to oppose “Social Darwinist” ideas that put the emphasis on individual self-assertion and competition within “the struggle for life”.

How did Kropotkin contribute to the theory of evolution?

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.

Which is the species most open to mutual aid?

“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.”