| In this dissertation I suggest there is much to gain by reassessing arguments Peter Kropotkin made in defense of evolutionary ethics. Kropotkin's thought provides a plausible account of the relationship between universality and particularity in normative theory, a cogent argument for the complementarity of materialism and idealism in human evolution, and important though neglected insight into the natural bases of the essential tension between egoism and other-regard as motives to human action. The evolutionary account of human nature advocated neither reduces human behavior to biological determination nor succumbs to the relativism characteristic of culturally embedded conceptions of justice. We come evolutionarily equipped, Kropotkin suggested, with rudiments of morality which are developed initially in the context of a struggle of self with the norms and conventions into which it is born, and secondarily in the intrinsically motivated quest for cognitive competency in self-determined self-world relations. Culture and nature work together and are combined in unfolding individuality with reason, passion, and instinct, as well as our faculties for understanding and empathy.; Kropotkin's theory helps make sense of differences separating communitarian venues for integrating disparate perspectives in the struggle to create a freer, more egalitarian world than the one we currently inhabit. In terms of political theory, his anarchist emphasis on liberty aligns him with liberal thought against Marxism or any other potentially totalitarian vision, but and unmitigated individualism. No one ought to be forcibly compelled to any particular way of life but neither can anyone be securely free until everyone has the opportunity for equitably developing talents and interests, for cultivating the pleasures of scientific, intellectual, and artistic creativity possible in human community. Kropotkin suggests these dual demands on political life may be effectively pursued by articulating or strengthening local political communities and reinvigorating the political principles of free association and federation. I explore these ideas in the problematic of globalization from the perspective of ecology and social movements and nationalism and the conflicting demands for self-determination and human rights. |
