[.ca] Authority and the Individual (ISBN 1406733792)

ON COLLABORATION:
In "Lecture One: Social Cohesion and Human Nature", of Bertrand Russell's Authority and the Individual, the author discusses group collaboration in relation to the "primitive communities"(1) who first engaged in collaborative practices in the name of survival and efficiency. He goes on to state that the early collaborations were dependant upon a "primitive basis of instinct, and partly upon a barely conscious sense of collective self-interest." (4) In relation to my current collaborations, I am interested in the idea of grouping in the name of survival (albeit in a different sense of the word), as well as how a "collective self-interest," manifestes itself. Finally, Russell speaks about the development of collaborative endeavours from those based on "territorial affinity or similarity of race," to those based on "identity of creed." (5) He quotes Abraham Lincoln in describing these new collaborations as "dedicated to a proposition." (6) I see the work I am pursuing in my collaborations and the nature of these collaborations to be described in these same terms.