.

The three words that comprise the title of this post are often used nearly interchangeably when discussing a person, group’s, or nation’s behavior but to my mind hey carry very different and important connotations.

Justify, which clearly comes from ‘justice’ is about making an argument that an action needed to be taken and was ultimately right to have been taken. You can justify taxes, the taking of a person’s property, because the social benefits are so large so important that the taking is ultimately a good and necessary thing. Other cases can be more edge case and will depend on the moral standing, philosophies, and such of the people involved.

Excuse to me carries the burden of acknowledgment of wrongdoing. This does not have to be a major or in any way a serious wrongdoing. We ask to be excused when we burp loudly because the noise of generally considered unpleasant and upsetting. In asking to be excused we admit that the sound was unsettling. We bump into a person on the train or in a crowd and again seek to be excused because uninvited touching is a violation. To excuse carries the knowledge of wrongdoing and the admission that it was wrong. One does not excuse malice because malice rarely carries any sort of admission of transgression.

Explain is a revealing of cause and effect absent moral judgment. That is not to say that the transgressive acts one might ‘explain’ are absent of moral weight or judgment but merely that understanding how they came to be done, the cause and effect that created the chain that bound the participant in the event are described and understood without judgment. We explain serial killers by understanding that childhood abuse and trauma has warped their minds and desires creating monsters. This is not excusing or justifying but understanding how they came to be.