Mutual Aid: The Other Law of the Jungle

ISBN-13: 9781509547920 / Angielski / Miękka / 2022 / 310 str.

Andrew Brown; Gauthier Chapelle; Pablo Servigne

Recenzje

'Cooperation has, over the course of evolution, been much more productive of increasing levels of complexity than competition. There is no doubt that mutual aid is omnipresent in nature. This penetrating study by Pablo Servigne and Gauthier Chapelle, which paints a portrait of this other "law of the jungle", is more than welcome at a time when we so badly need to foster cooperation, solidarity and benevolence in order to build a better world together.'Matthieu Ricard, author of Altruism: The Science and Psychology of Kindness

Spis treści

AcknowledgementsForeword by Alain CailléIntroduction. The age of mutual aidThe law of the jungleA potentially fatal paralysisThe emergence of another law of the jungleThe construction site of the new centuryChapter One. The history of a forgettingEverywhere, all the time, and in every colourAmong one's peersBetween distant cousinsBetween dissimilar organizationsOur most distant ancestors, champions of mutual aid in all categoriesAll the colours of 'symbiodiversity'We are an inextricable bundle of interdependenciesSetting the record straightWhy society hasn't seen it - a story of mythsKropotkin, the anarchist prince swimming against the tideOur blinkered societyWhy science didn't see it - a history of genesBefore the 1970sThe life, death and rebirth of sociobiology, 1970-2000The renaissance of the 2000sChapter Two. Spontaneous mutual aidContrary to popular belief...Where does Homo oeconomicus live?What emerges in a crisis situationWhat emerges from stress and the unknownHow are we to explain these automatisms?The end of simplistic modelsA malleable automatismChapter 3. Group mechanismsThe hard core of mutual aid: reciprocityThe obligation to give backThe roots of reciprocityThe transition to the group: extended reciprocityReputation (indirect reciprocity)Rewards and punishments (enhanced reciprocity)Very large groups: invisible reciprocitySocial normsInstitutionsChapter Four. The spirit of the groupA magical moment: when the group becomes oneThe sense of securityThe sense of equalityThe sense of trustThe birth of a superorganismTowards universal principles?The 'fundamentals': putting them into practiceThe principles of good governanceMutual aid taken to the extremeThe dissolution of the selfCollective ecstasyGroup closureA tragic moment: when mutual aid collapsesChapter Five. Beyond the groupThe big bad wolf principleCompetition with other groupsA hostile environmentReaching a common goalCan groups provide mutual aid to each other?Overcoming competition between groupsThe same mechanisms as at the lower levelA limit on size?The opportunity of global disastersChapter Six. Since the dawn of timeThe evolution of human mutual aidAssociating to surviveA band of immature primatesThe evolution of mutual aid between peers'There is strength in unity': the power of group selection'Winter is coming': the power of the hostile environmentOther evolutionary forcesThe evolution of mutual aid between speciesNeeding the other...... sometimes it's mutual...... and eventually you can't do without themAgain and again the hostile environmentAn endless source of innovationMutual aid calls for mutual aidTransforming yourself in contact with othersTaking it to the next levelHow mutual aid changed the face of the worldConclusion. The new face of mutual aidMuch more than just a law of the jungleThe main principles of mutual aidTowards a new vision of mutual aidEpilogue. For which world?Are we going to kill each other?Towards another mythologyBeyond humankindAppendix. On the 'new sociobiology'An earthquake in the land of sociobiologyThe secret had to lie in the genesThe slow betrayal of the founding fatherThe power of one manThe various evolutionary forces behind mutual aidThe origins of sociobiology: kinship selection and reciprocal altruismThe discovery of other paths: indirect reciprocity and spatial selectionTowards a more open and complex sociobiologyNotes

O autorze

Pablo Servigne is an agronomist with a PhD in biology. He is a specialist in questions of collapse, transition, agro-ecology and mutual aid.Gauthier Chapelle is an agronomist and biologist and an expert on biomimicry. He founded Biomimicry Europa and co-founded Greenloop.