In his Law & Liberty column, the dubious doctor ponders the role of psychology in accounting for people’s criminal behavior in light of the July 8 assassination of the former Prime Minister of Japan, Shinzo Abe.
Where human behaviour is concerned, except in very few and limited cases, there is always a gap—which I believe to be metaphysical—between the explanandum and the explanans. For this reason, I believe the role of psychology is very limited in the legal context, and that the presumption of responsibility for actions is both necessary and realistic. Mitigation (which may be very strong indeed) must not be confused with exculpation.
This article includes the word “gotten” which an English person like TD would never use. It must have been changed by someone else, which is not a good thing in my opinion. Why not leave the article as it was originally written by the author?