QUESTION: Anarchist Ethical Writings

I have been trying to find ethical writings from an anarchist viewpoint. I briefly looked through Kropotkin's ethics and found most of its arguments to be based on anecdotal evidence and personal reflections. I would like to find something more rigorous and substantial in its argumentation and evidence. Of particular interest to me are discussions on asserting oneself without imposing upon others.

On a sidenote: in issue 2 of crimethinc's Rolling Thunder there was an article titled "cycles of abuse and survival" about the perpetuation of abusive relationships between people. If you are aware of anything which furthers the inquiries and arguments put forth there, mainly how and why people perpetuate abusive relationships amongst one another, please let me know.

ANSWER: Anarchist Ethical Writings

This question was a little over my head, so I consulted an expert, Wayne Price. The following is his response, lightly edited and with some links added by your Radical Reference volunteer.

Kropotkin discussed morality in his Mutual Aid and in his unfinished book Ethics. Mutual Aid, at least, is widely available. Brian Morris (2004) Kropotkin: The Politics of Community, Humanity Books, has a chapter on Ethical Naturalism as well one on Mutual Aid. Murray Bookchin has written several works relating his social ecology/anarchism to philosophical issues, including ethics. His views are summarized in Bookchin (1996) The Philosophy of Social Ecology, Montreal/NY: Black Rose Press. This includes two chapters on Ecological Ethics.

Other than that, most anarchists who deal with ethics usually relate their thinking to some broader school of ethics. For example, Todd May (1994) The Political Philosophy of Poststructuralist Anarchism, Penn. State Univ. Press, relates anarchism to Foucault et al, including a discussion of ethics. Martin Buber Paths in Utopia is not explicit, but is associated with his own writing on ethics and human relationships (I and Thou). The anarchist-pacifist Paul Goodman rarely discussed it but he was deeply committed to Deweyan pragmatism/instrumentalism in relation to ethics and truth. (This is central, also, to my thinking on this topic.)

From the last sentence, it sounds like your questioner would be interested in the psychological literature on anger management in psychotherapy/counseling. It makes a strong distinction between appropriate assertiveness and hostile aggression. Anyway, to go back to Buber, he might cite Rabbi Hillel, "If I am not for myself, who will be? But if I am only for myself, what am I? And if not now, when?" (I know that's a weird site to link to, but it's the first one that gave a citation for the quote.)