Some people may use explanations that way, but it does not make explanations exoneration. It is true that once you know why someone did something, you may find it less easy to prosecute or punish them- but that's not the fault of the explanation, and it does not make it exoneration. What happens is that the human concept of "fairness" steps in, and most people say to themselves- "Well if he had a predisposition to do that, then we shouldn't punish him as if he had free will."
So I think what you really need to blame, if you wish to blame something, is the human need for fairness, and the fact that more and more we find things we thought a free choice have their roots in predetermined biology. The more we know about biology, the less fair it seems, to some people, to punish people for being the way they were born. I think that's the trend- more things are known about why we do what we do, and people try to figure out how to use that information fairly. |
