Bücher von Peter Kropotkin

A pioneering treatise on cooperation and reciprocity, from the great anarchist thinker'Don't compete! - competition is always injurious to the species, and you have plenty of resources to avoid it!'In his pioneering 1902 treatise on human cooperation, the anarchist thinker and natural scientist Peter Kropotkin argued that it is our innate instinct for mutual aid - rather than mutual struggle - which enables societies to survive and flourish. From the earliest days of evolution through to medieval guilds, indigenous nomads and modern voluntary organisations, Kropotkin's vision of small-scale, ecologically sustainable, collective communities challenged the orthodoxies of his age, whether individualism or Marxism. Mutual Aid offers instead a radical, and prescient, rewriting of the whole of human history.With an introduction by David Priestland

ΓÇ£The Conquest of BreadΓÇ¥ is an 1892 work by Peter Kropotkin. Kropotkin outlines what he believes are the main problems with both feudalism and capitalism, and explains why they require and encourage poverty and scarcity through the description of a future society based on liberty, equality and fraternity. A must-read for those with an interest in anarchy, communism, or libertarianism. Contents include: ΓÇ£Our RichesΓÇ¥, ΓÇ£Well-Being for AllΓÇ¥, ΓÇ£Anarchist CommunismΓÇ¥, ΓÇ£ExpropriationΓÇ¥, ΓÇ£FoodΓÇ¥, ΓÇ£DwellingsΓÇ¥, ΓÇ£ClothingΓÇ¥, ΓÇ£Ways and MeansΓÇ¥, ΓÇ£The Need for LuxuryΓÇ¥, ΓÇ£Agreeable WorkΓÇ¥, ΓÇ£Free AgreementΓÇ¥, ΓÇ£ObjectionsΓÇ¥, ΓÇ£The Collectivist Wages SystemΓÇ¥, ΓÇ£Consumption and ProductionΓÇ¥, ΓÇ£The Division of LabourΓÇ¥, etc.Pyotr Alexeyevich Kropotkin (1842ΓÇô1921) was a Russian writer, activist, revolutionary, economist, scientist, sociologist, essayist, historian, researcher, political scientist, geographer, geographer, biologist, philosopher and advocate of anarcho-communism. He was a prolific writer, producing a large number of pamphlets and articles, the most notable being ΓÇ£The Conquest of Bread and Fields, Factories and WorkshopsΓÇ¥ and ΓÇ£Mutual Aid: A Factor of EvolutionΓÇ¥. This classic work is being republished now in a new edition complete with an excerpt from ΓÇ£Comrade KropotkinΓÇ¥ by Victor Robinson.

Peter Kropotkin initially published the chapters of Mutual Aid as individual essays in the intellectual periodical The Nineteenth Century over the course of six years. In 1902 the essays were published as a book.In it, Kropotkin explores the role of mutually-beneficial cooperation across both animal and human societies. He begins by outlining how animals, both within and across species, thrive not through individual fitness, but rather through mutual cooperation. He then extends the breadth of his study to ancient human societies across generations and nations, until arriving at modern society, which he suggests has largely dispensed with the ancient benefits of mutual aid in favor of private property, capitalism, and social Darwinism.Though more of a philosophical work than a scientific work, many of Kropotkin¿s observations of the animal kingdom are considered to be scientifically accurate today, with Douglas H. Boucher calling Mutual Aid a precursor to the theory of biological altruism.As a philosophical work Mutual Aid, along with his other work The Conquest of Bread, is recognized as a foundational text of the anarcho-communist political philosophy.

The Conquest of Bread is a political treatise written by the anarcho-communist philosopher Peter Kropotkin. Written after a split between anarchists and Marxists at the First International (a 19th-century association of left-wing radicals), The Conquest of Bread advocates a path to a communist society distinct from Marx and Engels¿s Communist Manifesto, rooted in the principles of mutual aid and voluntary cooperation.Since its original publication in 1892, The Conquest of Bread has immensely influenced both anarchist theory and anarchist praxis. As one of the first comprehensive works of anarcho-communist theory published for wide distribution, it both popularized anarchism in general and encouraged a shift in anarchist thought from individualist anarchism to social anarchism. It was also an influential text among the Spanish anarchists in the Spanish Civil War of the 1930s, and the late anarchist theorist and anthropologist David Graeber cited the book as an inspiration for the Occupy movement of the early 2010s in his 2011 book Debt: The First 5,000 Years.

The Russian anarcho-communist author Peter Kropotkin published The Conquest of Bread, also known as The Bread Book, in 1892.Kropotkin contends that since all intellectual and useful property was produced via social labor, it should be considered common property. Since every person depends on the intellectual and physical labor of those who came before them as well as those who created the environment around them, every individual product is fundamentally the work of everyone.Kropotkin creates an illustration of what he imagines an anarcho-communist society may be. He cites the enormous levels of productivity attained by current industrial civilization as proof that such a society is feasible. He contends that sufficient amounts of the necessities are generated to meet everyone's wants; if only they were correctly distributed, no one would have any unfulfilled demands.According to Kropotkin, if given the opportunity to labor independently and the assurance of material security, people will work freely in cooperative factories that produce clothing or in communal gardens. He warns against the concentration of industry by the state, advises against more authoritarian socialism, and asserts that any revolution must ensure that workers and revolutionaries have access to food and freedom.

Introduction by George WoodcockThese essays, which either have not been previously published or have been out of print, embrace Kropotkin's philosophy at a time when he first gave it expression.This collection contains selected essays by Peter Kropotkin who was, unquestionably, the most widely read and respected theorist of anarchism. It is intended to make some of his most representative writings more accessible. The material consists of essays which either have not been previously published or have been out of print since their original publication.While the entire scope of Kropotkin's political thinking cannot possibly be projected in a single volume, it is hoped that many of his most fundamental conceptions have been exemplified here, for these essays embrace Kropotkin's philosophy at a time when he was struggling to first give them expression.In this context, Kropotkin's very first political essay, Must We Occupy Ourselves With An Examination of the Ideal of a Future System, written in 1873, which foreshadows most of his later writings, is of particular value.Apart from a general introduction to the most significant aspects of Kropotkin's life and thought, George Woodcock has prepared a preface to each essay allowing the reader to enter into the spirit of the time.Table of ContentsPrefaceMust We Occupy Ourselves with an Examination of the Ideal Future System?PrefaceAnarchist Communism: Its Basics and PrinciplesPrefaceAnarchist MoralityPrefaceThe State: Its Historic Role1993: 240 pages

Die Gegenseitige Hilfe in der Tier- und Menschenwelt ist nicht nur ein Klassiker der anarchistischen Literatur, sondern kann auch als früher Vorläufer soziobiologischen Denkens gelten. Geschrieben als Antwort auf zahlreiche Publikationen, die Darwins Evolutionstheorie zu einem menschenverachtenden Sozialdarwinismus verkürzen wollten, argumentiert Kropotkin, dass in Natur und Gesellschaft keineswegs nur ein Kampf aller gegen alle stattfindet, sondern dass ebenso ein Prinzip obwaltet, das er "gegenseitige Hilfe" nennt. Er kommt zu dem Schluss, dass jene Lebewesen erfolgreicher überleben, die dieses Prinzip umsetzen. Kropotkin illustriert seine Thesen nicht nur auf gelehrte Weise anhand von Quellen aus Biologie, Geschichts- oder Kulturwissenschaft der damaligen Zeit, sondern fügt auch eigene Beobachtungen an, die er auf seinen zahlreichen Reisen gemacht hat.

In Die Eroberung des Brotes umreißt Kropotkin seine Vorstellungen einer libertären Gesellschaft. Ausgehend von der Kritik der Verhältnisse am Ende des 19. Jahrhunderts entwickelt er die Utopie einer Gesellschaft, in der andere Eigentums- und Arbeitsverhältnisse existieren als im Kapitalismus. Durch die Neugestaltung sollte eine Aufhebung der Arbeitsteilung auf volkswirtschaftlicher und internationaler Basis stattfinden. Kropotkin kritisierte nicht nur die Trennung von Hand- und Kopfarbeit, sondern auch die Zerstückelung des Wissens über die Gesamtheit der Produktion. Dazu gehörte für ihn die Dezentralisierung der Industrie. Ein zentraler Punkt bei Kropotkin ist die Ablehnung jedwedes Lohnsystems. Kropotkins Werk ist insofern nicht nur ein "Klassiker", der einen grundlegenden Beitrag zur Theorie des Anarchismus liefert, sondern enthält auch für aktuelle Debatten noch Denkanstöße. Die Eroberung des Brotes gehört bis heute zu den wichtigsten Schriften des kommunistischen Anarchismus.

Der Anarchist und Evolutionstheoretiker Peter Kropotkin (1842-1921) zeigt in seinem Spätwerk auf, wie eine Ethik zu begründen ist, die auf einer naturalistischen Basis beruht und ohne metaphysische, transzendente bzw. religiöse Fundierung auskommt. Ausgehend von seinen Untersuchungen zur gegenseitigen Hilfe bei Tieren und Menschen, die als Vorläufer der modernen Soziobiologie verstanden werden kann und insbesondere die Bedeutung kooperativen Verhaltens für die Evolution in den Blick rückt, beschreibt Kropotkin, dass "sittliches" Verhalten selbst in der Natur angelegt ist bzw. zu ihr nicht im Widerspruch steht. In einer großen historischen Perspektive, die auch die Naturgeschichte des Lebens nicht ausschließt, geht Kropotkin dem Ursprung der Sitten nach und untersucht, wie durch die Jahrhunderte und Jahrtausende ethisches Denken von den Naturvölkern über die Antike bis in unsere Zeit sich entfaltet. Dabei kommt Kropotkin zu Einsichten, die als Vorläufer zum modernen "evolutionären Humanismus" verstanden werden können.

The Conquest of Bread is Peter Kropotkin's most detailed description of the ideal society, embodying anarchist communism, and of the social revolution that was to achieve it. Marshall Shatz's introduction traces the evolution of Kropotkin's thought, and the volume also includes a number of his shorter writings.