Converging Dialogues #476 - The Genetics of Original Sin: A Dialogue with Kathryn Paige Harden
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Feb 22, 2026 
Kathryn Paige Harden, a behavioral genetics professor and author, reflects on how genetics intersects with moral responsibility and human behavior. The conversation touches on luck versus blame, religion’s shaping of moral intuition, therapy and selfhood, cooperation’s costs and benefits, and ethical questions around embryo selection and eugenics.
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Prison Letter Prompted Personal Reckoning
- Kathryn Paige Harden received a letter from a man imprisoned for sexual violence asking why he committed the crime and whether he's fully to blame.
- That letter pushed Harden to move beyond technical answers and wrestle with blame, hope for change, and moral responsibility.
Psychedelic Moment That Dissolved Agency
- Kathryn Paige Harden describes a psychedelic experience that dissolved her ordinary sense of agency and made free will feel less concrete.
- The phenomenological loss of ego during the trip made abstract philosophical questions about blame feel immediate and personal.
Altered States Inform Moral Reasoning
- Altered states like psychedelics, childbirth, and awe experiences provide non-rational data that reshape moral reflection.
- Harden values these experiences alongside reason because they changed how her rational mind interprets responsibility and forgiveness.
