The [[idea]] of '''degeneration''' had significant [[influence]] on [[science]], art and [[politics]] from the 1850s to the 1950s. The [[social]] [[theory]] [[developed]] consequently from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Darwin Charles Darwin]'s [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_Evolution Theory of Evolution]. [[Evolution]] meant that [[mankind]]'s [[development]] was no longer fixed and certain, but could [[change]] and evolve or degenerate into an unknown [[future]], possibly a bleak future that clashes with the [[analogy]] between evolution and civilization as a [[progressive]] positive direction. | The [[idea]] of '''degeneration''' had significant [[influence]] on [[science]], art and [[politics]] from the 1850s to the 1950s. The [[social]] [[theory]] [[developed]] consequently from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Darwin Charles Darwin]'s [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_Evolution Theory of Evolution]. [[Evolution]] meant that [[mankind]]'s [[development]] was no longer fixed and certain, but could [[change]] and evolve or degenerate into an unknown [[future]], possibly a bleak future that clashes with the [[analogy]] between evolution and civilization as a [[progressive]] positive direction. |