Kropotkin and Mutual Aid (Introduction)

by dhw, Wednesday, October 31, 2012, 13:17 (4408 days ago) @ xeno6696

MATT: http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/human_evolution/2012/10/evolution_of_c... is a fascinating article. Thank you. I hadn't realized what an intellectual powerhouse Kropotkin was, or that the history of the cooperation theory went so far back. It's a pity the author of the article is so dogmatic about Lamarckism, since this no longer seems to be an open-and-shut case, especially with the current interest in epigenetics. -The author also talks of a dispute over whether "natural selection favored cooperative or competitive behaviours, a battle that still rages today." Doesn't natural selection simply mean that Nature selects whatever behaviours are conducive to survival? In some cases these will be cooperative, and in others competitive, depending largely on the environmental conditions in which organisms find themselves. Cooperation may well prove advantageous when there is competition, so you can argue for both sides at the same time! If there is a raging "battle", it seems pretty pointless to me, since both behaviours clearly play a major role, but no doubt I'm missing something.