Why Sheldrake Matters

Since Mendel, virtually no one has believed in the the Lamarckian idea of the inheritance of acquired characteristics. This means that inherited properties are considered biological, and specifically genetic. An organism with a certain genetic makeup will acquired new properties during its lifetime, but these will not be passed on to its heirs. There is inherited biology on the one hand and various forms of cultural formation on the other.

Of course, the cultural formation can appear to have the quality of heritability. It’s not an accident that Bach produced many musicians, and that Jonathan Edwards fathered a virtual race of intellectuals, pastors, leaders. But that’s not actually inheritance. The Bach kids came into the world with nothing more than the genetic predispositions given by Johann and Anna Magdalena; whatever musical abilities they acquired were not inherited but arose from the fact that they had the good fortune to be born into the home of the genius of Western music.

But I wonder. There does seem to be something closer to “genetic” inheritance going on in some cases. Take Mozart instead of Bach:

How did Mozart start out as a musical genius? His father was a composer, but Mozart’s talent seems to be expressed too early in his life for it to be the result of whatever musical training his father or others provided. Prodigies are prodigious in cultural feats (math, music): That can’t be biological, but it emerges too early in life to be the result of nurture.

This is where Rupert Sheldrake’s notion of “morphic resonance” has something to offer. It explains how acquired abilities can be transferred from individual organism to another non-genetically; or, if it does not explain the phenomenon, it at least acknowledges its existence and tries to theorize it.

And Sheldrake’s theory also has significant ethical importance, helping us sort through questions about the heritability of homosexual orientation or alcoholism. It cuts through the choices currently available: Either genetic and therefore biologically determined or the result of conscious choice. It suggests that we should explore the plausibility of the inheritance of acquired cultural, even moral characteristics.