degeneramientos

00:08 Dec 7, 2019 

I'm the same way, Chema, just trying to kind of think it through out loud, as it were, to come up with the most accurate term, as you say, based on the limited information we have. If I had the complete ST document, I would be looking for other instances of "degeneramientos" - is it used more than just this once? is it defined the first time it is used? But we don't have all that, so we give it our best shot.

19:44 Dec 5, 2019 

;) Neutral is fine, Tom. As usual, the interesting thing here is to find the most accurate term. Degeneramientos does not really sound right in Spanish either, but there might be a better term than degeneracies in English. I am just trying to explain "my whys" so as to allow for a better answer and not so much as a defense of the specific word I have chosen.
Thanks anyhow for all your insights!

18:13 Dec 5, 2019 

The more it's discussed, & the more I think about it, "degeneracies" may work here. If, for example, the ST is from a formal philosophical or, as you indicate, philosophical-theological paper, published in some kind of a journal of philosophy, with a target audience of religious academics, then it probably works.
For any kind of a more general audience, "degeneracies" just doesn't sound right to my anglophone ears.

12:38 Dec 5, 2019 

In this context, degeneramientos, as in "degeneramientos y perversiones", is a "charged term", where a sexual development different from the biologically determined one is considered not only pathological but discustingly wrong, and so it is described as having a degenerate quality or condition. Being a very arguable term -and rarely used-, when it comes to translation I think the English equivalent should try to convey the same nuances and connotations. That is why I thought of "degeneracies". I doubt there is an English formal equivalent anyhow, as the Spanish term is closely related to a very particular religious background.

15:25 Dec 4, 2019 

All that said, we know that philosophers like to use uncommon - or sometimes made-up - words to convey fine distinctions in meaning. That could be what's going on here, but impossible to say without a lot more context.

15:19 Dec 4, 2019 

As I said below, "degeneracies" is very uncommon in English, & what instances I've found of it seem to be mostly in discussions of quantum mechanics. It seems that Spanish "degeneramientos" is also very uncommon.
I think this may be an example of a noun that is used in the plural in Spanish, but almost always in the singular in English, at least in certain contexts. Another example: I run across "condiciones medicales" in Spanish, but almost always render it as "medical condition" in English.