Passage A The legal system rests on the assumption that people use conscious deliberation when deciding how to act—that is, in the absence of external duress, people freely decide how to act.
Passage A
The main takeaway from this passage is the first sentence of last paragraph: let's get rid of "blame" as a part of the legal vocabulary.
How did we get there?
The legal system rests on an assumption of free will, but we're also aware that behavior often takes place in the absence of free will.
So the crucial legal question becomes -- how much of our behavior is truly free? Neuroscience says "none of it is". The author isn't ready to say "none", but she admits in the 3rd paragraph that it's probably only a tiny sliver of our behavior.
Since we don't want court cases to become impossible arguments over whether the defendant's behavior came from a rare bit of free will or from a lifetime of genetic / environmental influences, we should stop trying to debate blame and should just think about how we avert bad behavior in the future.
Passage B
This passage is essentially a continuation of Passage A ---
The idea that 'rational arguments will only get you so far' is foreshadowing the author's argument that there is some emotional/instinctive component to blame that we won't be able to shed: - blaming urge deeply rooted in our psyche - we tried rehabilitation instead of retribution before, and retribution made a comeback. - there seems to be some social function played by blaming, and so the criminal justice system needs to reckon with that as it considers getting rid of "blame" as a concept.
Similarities
Both passages are discussing blame, the legal system, free will, rehab vs. punishment.
Differences
Passage A is arguing we should get rid of "blame". Passage B is arguing,