Pierre-François Moreau, author of Spinoza: l'expérience et l'éternité (1994) and Problèmes du spinozisme (2006), has initiated a spectacular revival of a rational history of ideas, thanks in particular to his studies of Spinoza. This volume, the first of two dedicated to his work, brings together original contributions by historians of philosophy.

Late nineteenth century Great-Britain was haunted by a fear of degeneration which confusedly merged concerns about morbid heredity, "racial decline" and social pathology. Degeneration discourse became the common ground shared by alarmist pseudo-scientific texts and Gothic fiction.

Fifteen articles, several of which are unpublished, enable an overview of the complete works of Montesquieu in all their dimensions. What does the genesis of his works tell us? Rediscover Montesquieu in his time and in the long haul of history; revealed by the succession of readings, sometimes contradictory, which have been given.