THE STRUGGLE FOR COEXISTENCE: PETER KROPOTKIN AND THE SOCIAL ECOLOGY OF SCIENCE IN RUSSIA, EUROPE, AND ENGLAND, 1859-1922 by ERIC M. JOHNSON A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE AND POSTDOCTORAL STUDIES (History) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) May 2019 © Eric M. Johnson, 2019 The following individuals certify that they have read, and recommend to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies for acceptance, the dissertation entitled: The Struggle for Coexistence: Peter Kropotkin and the Social Ecology of Science in Russia, Europe, and England, 1859-1922 Submitted by Eric M. Johnson in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History Examining Committee: Alexei Kojevnikov, History Research Supervisor John Beatty, Philosophy Supervisory Committee Member Mark Leier, History Supervisory Committee Member Piers Hale, History External Examiner Joy Dixon, History University Examiner Lisa Sundstrom, Political Science University Examiner Jaleh Mansoor, Art History Exam Chair ii Abstract This dissertation critically examines the transnational history of evolutionary sociology during the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. Tracing the efforts of natural philosophers and political theorists, this dissertation explores competing frameworks at the intersection between the natural and human sciences – Social Darwinism at one pole and Socialist Darwinism at the other, the latter best articulated by Peter Alexeyevich Kropotkin’s Darwinian theory of mutual aid. These frameworks were conceptualized within different scientific cultures during a contentious period both in the life sciences as well as the sociopolitical environments of Russia, Europe, and England. This cross- pollination of scientific and sociopolitical discourse contributed to competing frameworks of knowledge construction in both the natural and human sciences. I argue that the dominant theoretical framework that emerged in evolutionary sociology – what would become known as Social Darwinism – was an outcome in opposition to Socialist Darwinism rather than one that emerged through empirical evidence. The widespread rejection of Kropotkin’s Darwinian theory of mutual aid in England should be understood within this larger discursive context. As such, my project offers a reconceptualization of scientific knowledge construction by emphasizing the sociopolitical networks upon which consensus is achieved in the public sphere. This dissertation is divided into five chapters beginning with the macroscopic lens of anthropology in the context of Empire before progressing forwards in time but inwards in scope to examine the European socialists’ articulation of Darwinian science as a theory of social change, to the conflict between Social Darwinism and Socialist Darwinism, to the evolutionary mechanisms of cooperation in nature, and finally to the debate over the modes of biological inheritance. iii Lay Summary This dissertation follows the history and intellectual development of Peter Kropotkin whose scientific theory of mutual aid showed how Darwinian evolution could explain cooperation and the origin of morality. By following his journey from prince to naturalist to political radical, it reveals that Kropotkin was part of a transnational network of scientific and political thinkers whose perspective can be defined as Socialist Darwinism. Those figures that would later be defined as representing Social Darwinism originated in their opposition to Socialist Darwinism and through an ongoing debate with them. This demonstrates that political and scientific ideas about evolutionary change were influenced by each other in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. iv Preface All of the research in this dissertation was performed by the author, Eric M. Johnson. The research design was conducted by the author in consultation with his supervisor, Alexei Kojevnikov. An early chapter (not included in this dissertation but summarized in the conclusion) was published. Eric M. Johnson, “Demographics, Inequality and Entitlements in the Russian Famine of 1891,” Slavonic and East European Review 93(1), 2015, pp. 81-104. I conducted all of the statistics and wrote the manuscript. v Table of Contents Abstract………………………………………...…………………………………………iii Lay Summary……………………………………………...……………………………...iv Preface……………………………………………………………………………………..v Table of Contents…………………………………………………………...…………….vi List of Figures……………………………………………………………….…………..viii Acknowledgements………………………………………………………...……………..ix Prologue Bias in Biology…………………………………………………………….……………xiv Introduction Interpreting Darwinism………...…………………………………………...……………..1 Historiography and Kropotkin’s Science………………………………………………….5 Social Darwinism and Evolutionary Sociology………………………………………….14 Kropotkin’s Relevance to Contemporary Scientific Questions……………………….…25 Chapter Breakdowns……………………………………………………………….…….33 Sources and Research Methodology……………………………………………………..36 Chapter 1 An Ethnography of Mutual Aid: Race and Indigeneity in the Russian Far East………...40 Part I: Russian Orientalism, Ethnography, and Empire………………………….………47 Race and Ethnography in the Context of Empire………………………………………..58 Ethnography, Geography, and the German-Russian Discourse…………………….……60 Part II: Peter Kropotkin, Ethnography, and the Russian Far East ‘Zomia’………..…….67 Conclusion: Ethnography and Geosociology in Kropotkin’s Mutual Aid………….........85 Chapter 2 Evolution and Revolution: Darwinism and the Struggle for Progress…………...…..…..94 Darwinism and Rates of Evolutionary Change……………………………………..…100 Evolution and Revolution in the Jura Mountains………………….…………………...106 Proudhon, Bakunin, and the Darwinian Struggle……………….………………....…...110 Evolution, Revolution, and the Paris Commune…………………………………..……134 Conclusion: The Law of Human Progress……………………………………….……..138 Chapter 3 Social Darwinism Versus Socialist Darwinism……………………………...…………140 Fear of Socialist Revolution and the Struggle for Darwinism in Public Discourse….....143 Social Darwinism Responds to Socialist Darwinism…………………………………...154 Socialist Darwinism and the German Diaspora……………………………….………..159 Socialist Darwinism and the French Diaspora………………………………….………166 Social Darwinism versus Socialist Darwinism in England……………………………..186 Conclusion: Darwin’s Bulldog in the Gladiator’s Show………………...……………..198 vi Chapter 4 Evolution, Mutual Aid, and the Moral Sense in Transnational Context………...……...202 Sympathy and the Evolution of Darwin’s Moral Sense……………………….………..209 Sympathy and the Foundation of Mutual Aid…………………………………………..222 Social Instincts and Evolutionary Mechanisms in Transnational Context……….…….226 Mutual Aid and the Metaphorical “Struggle for Existence”………………...………….236 Processes, Mechanisms, and the Evolution of Mutual Aid………………………..…...242 Conclusion: Reorienting Socialist Darwinism………………………………………….250 Chapter 5 Darwin’s Russian Defender: Peter Kropotkin, August Weismann, and Evolutionary Epigenetics……………..…….253 Beyond the Darwinian-Lamarckian Dichotomy……………………………….…….…257 Degeneration and the Debate Over Heredity…………………………………………...259 Darwin and the “Provisional Hypothesis” of Pangenesis……………………...……….262 Entwicklungsmechanik, Epigenetics, and Preformationism……………………………266 The Development of Kropotkin’s Theory of Heredity…………………………………275 Kropotkin, Weismann, and the Inductive versus Deductive Method……………..……279 Kropotkin, Lankester, and a “Flagrant Misquotation of Records”……………………..285 Kropotkin’s Transition from Phenotypic Plasticity to Epigenetic Inheritance………....290 Preformationism versus Epigenetics and the Struggle for Eugenics…………...………296 Conclusion: The Karl Marx of Biology…………………………………….…………..305 Conclusion Biology, Ideology, and the Social Applications of Darwinism……………….………..307 Kropotkin’s Ideology versus Kropotkin’s Biology…………………………..…………309 1. Race and Racism (or Anti-Racism)………………………………………..………...319 2. Evolution or Revolution (“Punctuated Equilibrium”)……………………..….……..322 3. Malthusianism or Anti-Malthusianism…………………………………….….……..326 4. The Evolution of Morality…………………………………………………….……..330 5. Heredity (Neo-Darwinian, Lamarckian, and Epigenetic)……………………………332 6. Eugenics……………………………………………..……………………………….338 Conclusion: The Struggle for Coexistence………………………………..……………339 Bibliography………………………………………………………………………...….342 Archives……………………………………………………………………………..….375 vii List of Figures Figure 1.1 The Four “Zomias” of the Russian Far East/Inner Asia……...………….75 Figure 4.1 Six Examples of Children Crying……………………………...…….…214 Figure 5.1 Scheme of the dissection of the idioplasm of a frontal bone cell…...….271 Figure 5.2 Drawing by Kropotkin sent to Marie Goldsmith…………………...…..286 viii Acknowledgements I first encountered Kropotkin’s theory of mutual aid while pursuing a Ph.D. in Evolutionary Anthropology at Duke University. My research focused on the evolutionary mechanisms of prosocial behavior in bonobos (Pan paniscus) and I opted to enroll in the Graduate Certificate Program in the History and Philosophy of Science to brush up on my history of evolutionary theory. While rifling through dusty nineteenth-century tomes in the library, I was astounded to discover a contentious debate that mirrored so much of what was still taking place among evolutionary thinkers today. How could cooperative instincts evolve if natural selection only operates on individual reproductive success? If such a trait did emerge, how could it possibly be adaptive when confronted with