Original Sin

On the Genetics of Vice, the Problem of Blame, and the Future of Forgiveness

De: Kathryn Paige Harden

A daring and intimate exploration of how genetics complicates our ideas about blame, punishment, and moral responsibility, from acclaimed psychologist and author of The Genetic Lottery Kathryn Paige Harden.

As one of the world’s leading scientists examining how our DNA shapes differences in temperament, temptation, and behavior, Kathryn Paige Harden has seen firsthand how we continue to struggle—in public and in our most private relationships—with the ancient tensions between nature and nurture, freedom and constraint, the desire to punish and the longing to forgive.

In Original Sin, she weaves together insights from her own experience as a daughter, mother, wife, and scientist with cutting-edge research in genetics and psychology to grapple with some of the most important questions in modern life: How do we take responsibility for the people we become, knowing how we are shaped by both biology and experience? How should we respond when people hurt each other—or themselves? And has science made guilt obsolete?

Navigating the psychological and biological terrain of addiction, antisocial behavior, and violence, Harden confronts the disorienting ways science unsettles our understanding of wrongdoing and choice. In doing so, she asks us not to absolve but to reckon differently with notions of fairness and blame. A revelatory inquiry into the uneasy space where human behavior meets inherited biology, Original Sin challenges us to imagine a more humane vision of accountability—for ourselves and for one another.

Reseñas de la Crítica

“An extraordinary book, the very best of science writing, because it is about not just science—it is memoir, history, bleeding-edge genetics, and a completely original take on original sin. . . . Thrilling, entertaining, provocative, brilliant.”—Adam Rutherford, author of A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived

“Unique, expansive, and illuminating—a mix of religion and genetics that interweaves intensely personal storytelling with rigidly objective science to explore big questions about the bad things we have the capacity to do.”—John Higgs, author of William Blake vs. the World

“Even if you have no interest in the concept of sin, this is a compelling read. Harden’s bottom line is that we subjective beings are morally responsible for our actions (sorry), despite the fact that we also tick along deterministically. This emotionally startling and intellectually erudite book explains why.”—Mark Solms, neuroscientist, psychoanalyst, and author of The Only Cure