Paper Topic:

Romantic Period / 20th Century

p The term degeneration necessarily denotes the need to refer to its opposite which is generation . Generation means a host of things . From the Latin language , it defines the act of bringing a living being into birth and growth . One metaphorical acceptation is that of generating funds ' or that of

generating interest ' and the like . And lastly in universally accepted language and definition , in the case of collectivity , generation means the group of persons born at approximately the same time

Degeneration is primarily a medical term that is to the process

of decay or enfeeblement of an organism or a part of it , possibly leading to its death . Its metaphorical meaning is characterized by ideas , customs , and institutions . In universally accepted language degeneration is connected to the act or state of growing worse , or a state of decline : degeneracy , deterioration , degradation , and debasement ' In the medical world it is the diminishing and prevention of the stability of a tissue or organ for science it is a substitution of a high form of structure from a lower form . In biological terms degeneration is a progressive deterioration characterized by a return to a simpler and less complex organized scenario or condition in the evolution of a group of animals or plants , or of any of their parts or organ , or in higher evolution of a particular organism or part evolution that is retrogressive . All that has been mentioned can be very useful in the study or recognition of ideas and institutions which may also tend to degenerate in the way of the biological context and so they become ideologies , rather than real perceptions of reality . And as they are so , they become ways by which socio-economic and political manipulation can be achieved

Generation implies unity , synthesis , and interpretation . Also vitality and fruitfulness . Degeneration represents the adverse , specifically disintegration , division , anemia , and sterility . In the world of ideas one must keep in mind a comparison between that of deconstruction which pertains to dissecting ideas with the objective of revealing the subjective bias of its parts to the physical and metaphorical phenomenon of cancer- as a malignant growth that contributes to the painful death of an organism . If one looks at the history of mankind one can see a great number of degenerations , revivals , periods of decadence replaced by periods of progress ( and then decadence again success and failures (etc ,that constitute the drama of human history in every individual and in every society . History is indeed a struggle between many contraries : good and evil , unity and division , truth and error , light and darkness , creativity and nihilism . A struggle of opposing forces towards and away from unity , towards and away from being , towards and away from life . The operations of degeneration take the form of a kind of inflammation of a true phase of reality . It is as if the part is substituted for the whole , or absolutized ' and thereby the whole is reduced and badly distorted , therefore beginning the process of decay and...

6 pages

82.0 KB

Free sing-up