Sympathy as the Engine of Mutual Reading Kropotkin’s Bipartite Account of Sympathy

Anarchist Studies - Print ISSN 0967-3393 - Online ISSN 2633-8270
Volume 34 Number 1 (2026)

Sympathy as the Engine of Mutual Reading Kropotkin’s Bipartite Account of Sympathy
Michael Grooff pages 13‑34
DOI: 10.3898/AS.34.1.01

Abstract

In this article, I argue that Peter Kropotkin presents, throughout his works, an apparently contradictory account of sympathy as the driving force behind mutual aid, particularly in his Anarchist Morality. Though he claims to follow the Smithian account, he simultaneously contradicts it. Moreover, if we were to accept Kropotkin’s own claim of following Smith, we would no longer be able to make sense of mutual aid as a broad drive in (non-human) animal life. To make sense of this, I argue for a bipartite reading of Kropotkin’s account of sympathy in terms of both simulation and perception. In my analysis of the latter, I borrow from the phenomenological tradition and its conception of ‘empathy’, which I use to argue that an understanding of sympathy through perception solves the problem of animal sympathy as well as to provide a better account of sympathy as the basis of morality.

SORRY - you are not registered as being permitted online access to the full text of this article

You have the following options:

  1. If you are viewing this via an institution or academic library you can ask that your institution takes out a Subscription to this journal.
  2. If you already have a Personal Subscription please login below


    Forgotten your username / password? Click here to locate

  3. Purchase an annual Personal Subscription
    PRINT + DIGITAL personal subscription (£35 / year)
    DIGITAL personal subscription (£30 / year)
    A Personal Subscription provides immediate access not only to the single article you are seeking, but also to all past and future articles in this journal up to the expiry of your annual (calendar year) subscription.
  4. Purchase immediate access to this single article (UK£7.00) - Buy article Coming Soon

To cite this article
Michael Grooff (2026) Sympathy as the Engine of Mutual Reading Kropotkin’s Bipartite Account of Sympathy, Anarchist Studies, 34(1), 13-34 . https://doi.org/10.3898/AS.34.1.01

Share this