Katha Pollitt wrote:
>
> That human nature is "essentially benevolent, cooperative and social"
> (if social means something other than "unlike cats and tigers,live
> together in groups") seems to me pure speculation.
Do you mean the whole idea of 'human nature' must rest on speculation? Any political or moral theory that isn't hyper-structuralist must have some conception of human nature or a theory of how people act towards each other. If you assume or argue as Kropotkin did that people are naturally co-operative then it is easy to get to the conclusion that anarchist utopia is perfectly feasible.If everyone were nicer to each other, utopia would be here. If you think that people are naturally selfish, greedy and egoistic it is hard to do better than social democracy or stalinism.
As to whether the idea of human nature is speculative it depends on how much you think behavior is genetic or hard wired.
Sam Pawlett