Lamarckism degeneration theory http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85036472 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Degeneration_theory https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q559003 A widely influential concept at the interface of the social and biological sciences in the 19th century which theorized that civilization might be in decline and that the causes of decline lay in biological change. These ideas derived from pre-scientific concepts of heredity ("hereditary taint") with Lamarckian emphasis on biological development through purpose and habit. Degeneration concepts were often associated with authoritarian political attitudes, including militarism and racist science, as well as with fears of national decline. HV4961-HV4998 QH556 HM892 degeneracy theory degenerate degeneration social degeneration theory of degeneration pseudobiological theory The Complete Dictionary of Sexology