Until the end of the 20th century, heredity was seen by scientists as a matter of genes and DNA transmission. But in recent decades, research has revealed non-genetic transmissions, helping to explain why children on average resemble their parents more than other individuals in a population. These include epigenetic (changes in gene activity without changing the DNA sequence), microbial, hormonal and behavioral transmissions. Some biologists and philosophers now speak of "extended heredity".

"The challenge is to redraw the concept of heredity, going beyond the strictly genetic vision that has prevailed until now", explains Gaëlle Pontarotti. "The aim of my book and my research is to articulate different forms of transmission and to rethink the compatibility between heredity and transgenerational freedom."

For since Greek antiquity, everything suggests that we are locked into a family destiny. But if heredity goes beyond genes, what room for manoeuvre do we have? "The challenge is to find a happy medium between hereditary fatalism and the illusion of omnipotence in the face of our heritage", sums up the researcher.

This new concept overturns our vision of filiation and the status of the individual. We are no longer simply objects determined by causes beyond our control: we are once again actors in what we receive and transmit. It also invites us to reconsider the place of genes in filiation: is the parent fundamentally the one who transmits his or her genetic heritage?

And what if, ultimately, our heritage was also what we chose to make of it?

Cover credit: Éditions Gallimard, book visual Par-delà les gènes.

Olivier Sartenaer's team: Doan Vu Duc, Maxime Hilbert, Charly Mobers, Olivier Sartenaer, Louis Halflants, Andrea Roselli, Gauvain Leconte-Chevillard, Eve-Aline Dubois.

"Several contingent factors enabled the creation of SPiN: the absence of a research structure specifically dedicated to these themes and the almost simultaneous arrival of four young philosophers of science. It's a bit like an alignment of the planets", explains Olivier Sartenaer.

At his side are Juliette Ferry-Danini (Faculty of Computer Science), Thibaut De Meyer (Faculty of Philosophy and Letters) and Gaëlle Pontarotti (Faculty of Science), who form the core of SPiN.

SPiN is part of a research dynamic committed to the heart of contemporary debates.

SPiN researchers explore a wide range of themes, against a backdrop of questioning our relationship to scientific knowledge. These include:

• the relationship between science and pseudoscience;
• reductionism in science;
• genetic determinism and heredity;
• medical ethics and public health (vaccinations, pandemics);
• ethology,
• perspectivism.

This research is carried out by an interdisciplinary team of teacher-researchers, doctoral students and post-docs from the various faculties of UNamur.

SPiN organizes weekly seminars devoted to current research in philosophy of science, as well as seminars linked to more specific themes: health, life sciences, cosmology and theories of emergence and reductionism in the natural sciences.

But SPiN is not limited to the academic sphere: the center intends to take these issues outside the university walls, through events and activities accessible to all. An inaugural event is already planned for next spring on a topical theme: mistrust in science. More info to come!