NATURAL SELECTION AND MUTUAL AID

• AUTHOR: Peter Kropotkin
• DATE: circa 1897.00.00
• ORIGINAL PUBLICATION: Originally a lecture. Originally printed in Humanity.
• SOURCE: Humane Science Lectures, Appendix.
• NOTE: Published for the "Humanitarian League."
• ALTERNATE VERSIONS: N/A

This lecture, which was the second in the series, was not written, and it has been impossible to reproduce if except in the following much epitomized form, which was printed at the time in "Humanity."

After remarking that the subject of mutual aid is essential to any philosophy of humane science, the lecturer pointed out that, in the continual development of science, periods necessarily occur -- as now -- when there seems to be no satisfactory progress, there being a temporary pause while preparation is made for a new step, an advance to further generalisations. Untrained minds, impatient at the delay, attempt to supply more than science can give; and this, together with the patronage of Church and State, tends to impair the usefulness of Science. Political Economists who know nothing of the life of the people and the actual conditions of production, write learned works which are accepted as scientific; and in the same was Natural History is studied in closed laboratories and not, as Audubon studied it, in the open forests. Thus conclusions are arrived at which are antagonistic to human nature, and it is believed that science is somehow instructing us to take each other by the throat. But science has no such prescription for us, and indeed no prescription at all; it merely tells us facts -- what consequences follow what causes. "Darwinism" is now-a-days made to answer for every sort of outrage, is the explanation of every villainy, as, for example in our recent treatment of the Matabele, whose extinction is justified on the plea that "black men must go," "it seems cruel, but it is their inevitable destiny," and other equally "scientific" assertions. Nature, according to Huxley's theory, is no better than a gladiatorial show, where each being is against each, and there is no need for the spectators to tun their thumbs downwards (the signal for the coup de grace), because no quarter is ever shown in any case, since life is a continual free fight.

But, said the lecturer, Darwin does not teach this. He proves that there is a struggle for existence, in order to put a check on the inordinate increase of species. But this "struggle" is not to be understood in a crude and exclusive sense; there is a law of competition, but there is also what is still more important -- a law of mutual aid, and as soon as the scientist leaves his laboratory and comes out into the open woods and meadows, he sees this importance of this law. Only those animals who are mutually helpful are really fitted to survive; it is not the strong, but the co-operative species that endure.

Instances of mutual aid, of which any number might be quoted, may be seen even in the less developed forms of life. Land-crabs migrate in columns from sea to land; and the lecturer narrated how he had watched an overturned king-crab at the Brighton Aquarium laboriously set on its again by the repeated efforts of its companions. The good will of ants is signified by a free gift of food from full crop to empty crop, and this pact of friendship is not confined to individuals but extends to whole nests, thus showing that the Stomach exists not for individuals only but for the community. Natural Selection comes to aid those species that are social. Much is said of birds and beasts "of prey." But birds of prey are comparatively few in number, whereas the other kinds, where man has not come on the scene, are countless, as for example, the passenger pigeons in America, which once flew in such flocks as to obscure the sun for days, or the various species which in high northern latitudes bred in immense numbers and all co-operate to scare away the intruding robber. So, too, with the mammals. There is much talk of the savagery of lions and tigers, but how few they are by comparison, let us say, with the whole villages of prairie-dogs, who live in perfect amity and comradeship! The lecturer further instanced the vast processions of buffaloes that might once be seen in North America, the beasts of prey that followed them being merely the scavengers of nature. The highest form of association among animals is of course to be seen among Monkeys, whose combined defence is so perfect that it has been said that they seldom die any but a natural death, and instances are recorded of their carrying off the dead body of a comrade from the tent of his human murderer. Mutual aid is thus a very substantial element in existence, and not for utilitarian purposes only, but for the simple enjoyment of life. The highest developed in every class is the most sociable, because the increased length of years which association secures is favourable to the increase of Experience.

It remains to apply this principle to human science. "It may be true of the animals," it is said, "but is it true of man? Is it true of Savages?" a doubt to which even Spencer and Huxley have in some degree lent their sanction. But those who have lived among savages know that it is true. The records of the early travellers [sic] in Oceana [sic] and the Pacific Isles led to that conception of an ideal "state of nature" on which so much ridicule has been poured by later writers; but, as a matter of fact, scientific investigation has revealed in these races a remarkable wealth of institutions for mutual aid, and the existence of a happy and peaceful society without authority or government. In the tribal state which preceded the family every possession was shared in common, and whatever was held by the individual returned to the tribe at his death. In the village communities of so-called "barbarians," there was a common ownership of land, and a jury system which settled quarrels by arbitration -- intelligence having been developed to this extent out of mutual aid.

In spite of the teachings of supposed scientific authorities, mutual aid exists largely among the poorer classes of to-day [sic]; and if we leave printed matter, and go to study the actual facts of life, we find great material to support this belief. It was because Huxley over-looked this law of mutual aid, that he was driven to look for help from another quarter, and so gave some countenance to the idea of a return to supernaturalism.

The process of Mutual Aid has been developed from the first, through countless ages, among animals, and its application to Man is only a continuance of the same law. Let us note the lesson of Nature. In times of scarcity, how do animals and birds act? They migrate; or, like the ants, take concerted measures to provide themselves with food. Yet Man, the highest of the animals, things he has no option but to rob his fellow, as Englishmen have robbed and spoiled the Matabele! There is no need of any extraneous or supernatural help or admonition. All the elements of morality are inherent in Nature, if we would but study them.

Last Updated: 2008.12.10