ABSTRACT
Anarchism distances itself from both liberalism and Marxism by arguing that liberalism is too focused on the individual and forgets the collective, while the Marxists are too focused on the collective and forget the individual. According to Peter Marshall, it would be difficult to offer an exact definition of anarchism, since by its very nature it is a complex and subtle philosophy, embracing many different ideas and thoughts. The Greek philosopher Heraclitus was the first to anticipate the anarchist belief that constant change takes place within a natural order. Anarchists in England and Germany argued that cooperation and individual initiative, rather than competitive struggle and the suppression of individualism, should be the guiding principles of social progress. Peter Kropotkin and Elisee Reclus argued that anarchism originated from the demands of practical life, and they made a powerful contribution to introducing ecological perspectives into anarchist thought.
