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Encyclopedia of Early Modern Philosophy and the Sciences pp 1–12Cite as

Degeneration Theory

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Synonyms

Alteration; Corruption; Decay; Deviation; Mutation; Transformation

Introduction

To devote section of this Encyclopedia to the notion of degeneration may sound odd, as this notion has been pictured as a typically “Fin de siècle” theme, related to the theories of evolution or to psychiatry and criminology after 1850 (Pick 1989; Coffin 2003). Before this period, it is sometimes claimed that degeneration was rather a common place, as old and vague as the complaint celebrating old times as a golden age, and not a scientific or political problem. Historians of modern life sciences and medicine know, though, that, at least from the eighteenth century, the question of the degeneration of the species has been both a significant object of scientific investigations and a haunting biopolitical issue (Sloan 1973; Quinlan 2007). Degeneration of plants or animals referred to a process of alteration of the species over generations that could transform the specific type in such a way that it...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Histoire et Philosophie des Sciences, Université de Paris/SPHERE, Paris, France

    Claude-Olivier Doron

Authors
  1. Claude-Olivier Doron
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Claude-Olivier Doron .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Philosophy, University of Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania

    Dana Jalobeanu

  2. Dept. of Philosophy and Moral Sciences, Ghent University Dept. Philosophy & Moral Sci, Ghent, Oost-Vlaanderen, Belgium

    Charles T. Wolfe

Section Editor information

  1. Département Histoire et Philosophie des Sciences, Université Paris Diderot, Paris, France

    Justin E.H. Smith

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Doron, CO. (2019). Degeneration Theory. In: Jalobeanu, D., Wolfe, C. (eds) Encyclopedia of Early Modern Philosophy and the Sciences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-20791-9_164-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-20791-9_164-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-20791-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-20791-9

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Religion and PhilosophyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Humanities

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