Peter Kropotkin

1842-1921 · Russian · Political Philosophy, Ethics, Evolutionary Theory

Well-being for all is not a dream.

Peter Kropotkin was born a Russian prince, a Rurikid whose family outranked the Romanovs in antiquity, and he spent his life trying to abolish everything that made such rank possible. Page to the Tsar, then a young army officer who chose Siberia over the guards so that he might explore, he did geography of the first rank in the mountains of Manchuria and Finland — and there, watching animals survive the brutal Asian winters, he saw something Darwin's English followers had missed. The struggle for existence was real, but the animals that flourished were not the fiercest competitors; they were…

Topics Peter Kropotkin addresses

• mutual aid
• mutual aid as a factor of evolution
• cooperation versus competition in nature
• the critique of Social Darwinism
• sociability as a natural law
• anarchist communism
• the abolition of the wage system
• distribution according to need
• the critique of collectivism
• expropriation
• the conquest of bread
• the abolition of the state
• the state as an instrument of domination
• the critique of state socialism
• anarchism versus Marxism
• the critique of revolutionary government
• spontaneous order
• free federation
• the medieval free city and the commune
• voluntary association
• integration of labour
• the union of brain work and manual work
• fields, factories, and workshops
• anarchist ethics

Questions to put to Peter Kropotkin

Mutual Aid and the Evolution of Cooperation

• What did you actually observe in Siberia that convinced you cooperation mattered more than competition?
• How is mutual aid a factor of evolution, not just a nice exception to the struggle for existence?
• What's wrong with Huxley's view that nature is a gladiators' show and morality is a rebellion against it?
• Why do the social species survive and flourish while the unsociable ones perish?
• How do you answer the objection that you're just projecting human kindness onto animals?

Anarchist Communism and the Conquest of Bread

• Why should distribution be according to need rather than according to how much each person works?
• What's wrong with paying workers in proportion to their labour contribution?
• How would a revolution guarantee bread and housing to everyone immediately?
• What do you mean by expropriation, and why is it justified?
• Won't people stop working if they get what they need without having to earn it?

The State and Its Historic Role

• How did the state arise, and what did it destroy when it grew?
• Why isn't the state just a neutral tool that good people could use for good ends?
• What were the medieval free cities and guilds, and why do they matter to you?
• How do you answer the Marxists who say we need a workers' state to get to communism?
• What did you see in the Bolshevik regime that confirmed your warnings about revolutionary government?

Fields, Factories, and the Integration of Labour

• Why do you think agriculture and industry should be integrated rather than specialized?
• What's wrong with the international division of labour?
• How would the union of brain work and manual work actually work in practice?
• Can decentralized production really provide abundance, or does it sacrifice efficiency?
• What's at stake for you in the critique of the specialized worker?

Anarchist Ethics and Morality Without Command

• How can morality be grounded in nature without becoming a might-makes-right doctrine?
• What's the difference between justice and magnanimity in your ethics?
• Why don't we need God or the state to tell us what's right?
• How do you answer Nietzsche's claim that mutual aid is just a slave morality?
• What do you make of the objection that people are too selfish for a society without authority?

Converse with Peter Kropotkin on Simposeum. Replies are grounded in Peter Kropotkin's own writing, cited to the page.