Peter Kropotkin
1842-1921 · Libertarian Socialism · Prominent
Kropotkin was a Russian prince and geographer. Watching animals survive in Siberia, he decided the textbooks had it wrong: the species that last are the ones whose members help each other, and mutual aid rather than competition is the decisive factor in evolution. He built anarchism on that finding, taking it as proof that a stateless society has a basis in nature, and wanted no state, no wages and no property, with goods handed out by need.
Signature
The position Kropotkin is most identified with in the Profiler:
- Polity
- strongly leans Liberalism
- Government
- Anarchy
Positions on the 12 axes the sources answer
- Natural Processes
- strongly leans Mechanistic (3 on a 0–100 scale from Mechanistic to Purposeful)
- Society
- leans Collectivism (25 on a 0–100 scale from Collectivism to Individualism)
- Order
- strongly leans Horizontal (97 on a 0–100 scale from Vertical to Horizontal)
- Truth
- strongly leans Objective (100 on a 0–100 scale from Subjective to Objective)
- Opposition
- leans Concurrence (86 on a 0–100 scale from Sublation to Concurrence)
- Nature
- strongly leans Harmony (91 on a 0–100 scale from Mastery to Harmony)
- Polity
- strongly leans Liberalism (93 on a 0–100 scale from Illiberalism to Liberalism)
- Ethics
- leans Ends (28 on a 0–100 scale from Ends to Means)
- War
- mildly leans Pacifism (39 on a 0–100 scale from Pacifism to Militarism)
- Ignorance
- leans Bondage (25 on a 0–100 scale from Bondage to Bliss)
- Conviction
- strongly leans Uncertain (0 on a 0–100 scale from Uncertain to Certain)
- Allegiance
- strongly leans Global (97 on a 0–100 scale from Local to Global)
8 of 20 axes are left blank: the sources do not answer them, or Kropotkin refused the framing. Nothing is imputed; a blank is not a middling score.
Foundational questions
- Theology
- Atheism
What is your position on the existence and nature of God or gods? - Government
- Anarchy
What is your ideal form of government? - Highest Good
- Freedom
What is the highest good? - Good and Evil
- Natural Emergence
What is the fundamental nature of good and evil? - End of Things
- Open Future
What is the ultimate end of all things? - Knowledge
- Naturalism
What is the ultimate foundation of knowledge? - Ethics Basis
- Natural Law
What is the ultimate basis of ethics? - Agency
- Social Determinism
What is the nature of human agency and freedom? - Beginning of Things
- Eternal Cosmos
What is the origin of reality? - Time
- Linear Progressive
What is the fundamental shape of time? - Economy
- Cooperative Commonwealth / Post-Scarcity
What is the ideal organization of economic life? - Authority
- Collective Will
What is the legitimate source of authority? - Paradox
- Paradox as Error
What is the status of paradox? - Law
- Revolutionary / Subsidiarity
What is the ultimate source of legitimate law? - Death
- Annihilation
What happens at death? - Role of Emotion
- Adaptive Function
What is the proper role of emotion? - Human Nature
- Evolved Animal
What is human nature? - Primary Bond
- Humanity / All Beings
What is your primary bond and loyalty?