In the merciless arena of life, we are all subject to the law of the jungle, to ruthless competition and the survival of the fittest – such is the myth that has given rise to a society that has become toxic for our planet and for our and future generations.
But today the lines are shifting. A growing number of new movements and thinkers are challenging this skewed view of the world and reviving words such as ‘altruism’, ‘cooperation’, ‘kindness’ and ‘solidarity’. A close look at the wide spectrum of living beings reveals that, at all times and in all places, animals, plants, microorganisms and human beings have practised different forms of mutual aid. And those which survive difficult conditions best are not necessarily the strongest, but those which help each other the most.
Pablo Servigne and Gauthier Chapelle explore a vast, forgotten continent of mutual aid in order to discover the mechanisms of this ‘other law of the jungle’. In so doing, they provide a more rounded view of the world of living things and give us some of the conceptual tools we need to move beyond the vicious circle of competition and self-destruction that is leading our civilization to the verge of collapse.
Acknowledgements Foreword by Alain Caillé Introduction. The age of mutual aid The law of the jungle A potentially fatal paralysis The emergence of another law of the jungle The construction site of the new century Chapter One. The history of a forgetting Everywhere, all the time, and in every colour Among one’s peers Between distant cousins Between dissimilar organizations Our most distant ancestors, champions of mutual aid in all categories All the colours of ‘symbiodiversity’ We are an inextricable bundle of interdependencies Setting the record straight Why society hasn’t seen it - a story of myths Kropotkin, the anarchist prince swimming against the tide Our blinkered society Why science didn’t see it – a history of genes Before the 1970s The life, death and rebirth of sociobiology, 1970-2000 The renaissance of the 2000s Chapter Two. Spontaneous mutual aid Contrary to popular belief… Where does Homo œconomicus live? What emerges in a crisis situation What emerges from stress and the unknown How are we to explain these automatisms? The end of simplistic models A malleable automatism Chapter 3. Group mechanisms The hard core of mutual aid: reciprocity The obligation to give back The roots of reciprocity The transition to the group: extended reciprocity Reputation (indirect reciprocity) Rewards and punishments (enhanced reciprocity) Very large groups: invisible reciprocity Social norms Institutions Chapter Four. The spirit of the group A magical moment: when the group becomes one The sense of security The sense of equality The sense of trust The birth of a superorganism Towards universal principles? The ‘fundamentals’: putting them into practice The principles of good governance Mutual aid taken to the extreme The dissolution of the self Collective ecstasy Group closure A tragic moment: when mutual aid collapses Chapter Five. Beyond the group The big bad wolf principle Competition with other groups A hostile environment Reaching a common goal Can groups provide mutual aid to each other? Overcoming competition between groups The same mechanisms as at the lower level A limit on size? The opportunity of global disasters Chapter Six. Since the dawn of time The evolution of human mutual aid Associating to survive A band of immature primates The evolution of mutual aid between peers ‘There is strength in unity’: the power of group selection ‘Winter is coming’: the power of the hostile environment Other evolutionary forces The evolution of mutual aid between species Needing the other... ... sometimes it’s mutual... ... and eventually you can’t do without them Again and again the hostile environment An endless source of innovation Mutual aid calls for mutual aid Transforming yourself in contact with others Taking it to the next level How mutual aid changed the face of the world Conclusion. The new face of mutual aid Much more than just a law of the jungle The main principles of mutual aid Towards a new vision of mutual aid Epilogue. For which world? Are we going to kill each other? Towards another mythology Beyond humankind Appendix. On the ‘new sociobiology’ An earthquake in the land of sociobiology The secret had to lie in the genes The slow betrayal of the founding father The power of one man The various evolutionary forces behind mutual aid The origins of sociobiology: kinship selection and reciprocal altruism The discovery of other paths: indirect reciprocity and spatial selection Towards a more open and complex sociobiology Notes
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.
Reviews for Mutual Aid: The Other Law of the Jungle
"‘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 ""Servigne and Chappelle’s narrative is on point"" Emancipations: A Journal of Critical Social Analysis"
