Kropotkin does three things<br><br>1) He offers a critique of Huxley and his soft critique of Spenserian "social Darwinism". <br><br>2) He makes claims that cooperative examples taken from nature can provide a different point of view on evolutionary natural selection.
<br><br>3) He concludes that examples from this natural view shows that humans are a cooperative species and this supports his politics.<br><br>His critique of Huxley and his critique of "fundamentalist Darwinism" are still interesting. Leftists and philosophers of science can learn from his critiques. Further, that Kropotkin assumes a perspective that we would call today "evolutionary psychology" and "sociobiology" shows that one does not have to be a "rightist" of any sort to think that some form of cooperative democracy (anarchism, socialism) are compatible with natural human capacities.
<br><br>But I think the optimism of his assumed conclusion in (3) was wrong and makes the same mistake that many social Darwinists made and many "right wing" sociobiologists made. <br><br>I think ~J was correct in saying that Kropotkin was a good sociobiologist to imitate. That does not mean that he was always correct in his conclusions.
<br><br><div><span class="gmail_quote">On 5/28/06, <b class="gmail_sendername">Louis Kontos</b> <<a href="mailto:lkontos@mac.com">lkontos@mac.com</a>> wrote:</span><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
an example of what? someone who attempts to demonstrate that there is<br>a biological basis for socialism? is that your argument with regard<br>to 'progressive politics'?<br><br>On May 28, 2006, at 10:16 AM, J wrote:<br><br>
><br>> On May 28, 2006, at 10:45 AM, louis wrote:<br>><br>>> how does one 'integrate the insights of evolutionary psychology into<br>>> progressive politics'? progressive politics revolves around an<br>
>> entirely different set of insights -- including insight into the<br>>> factors that transform biological into social facts.<br>><br>> Kropotkin probably the first evolutionary psychologist would be an
<br>> example.<br>><br>> <a href="http://libcom.org/library/mutual-aid-peter-kropotkin">http://libcom.org/library/mutual-aid-peter-kropotkin</a><br>><br>> ~J<br>><br>> ___________________________________
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http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk</a><br></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Jerry Monaco's Philosophy, Politics, Culture Weblog is<br>Shandean Postscripts to Politics, Philosophy, and Culture
<br><a href="http://monacojerry.livejournal.com/">http://monacojerry.livejournal.com/</a> <br><br>His fiction, poetry, weblog is<br>Hopeful Monsters: Fiction, Poetry, Memories<br><a href="http://www.livejournal.com/users/jerrymonaco/">
http://www.livejournal.com/users/jerrymonaco/</a> <br><br>Notes, Quotes, Images - From some of my reading and browsing<br><a href="http://www.livejournal.com/community/jerry_quotes/">http://www.livejournal.com/community/jerry_quotes/
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