From Darwinian competition to Kropotkinian cooperation

After reading Malthus, Darwin became aware that the driving force of species evolution was natural selection. Many a theorist then instrumentalized that competition. Marx and Engels welcomed a natural explanation for “Creation”, while criticizing Darwin and “The Struggle for Life”. Kropotkin, also a Communist, proposed that mutual assistance was the second driving force of social evolution. Cooperation has now become fashionable, but the Left struggles with endorsing the genetics of behaviour.