Compatibilism In Being A Teenager

Being a teenager is much more difficult than most think. I always wanted to have fun and do what everyone else was doing. Being raised by strict parents did not really let me hang out with my friends and have fun as much as I wanted. I did not always get to do what everyone else did. Eventually when I got to high school, all of my friends were going out to party at an older boy’s house. Knowing my parents would say no, I lied about where I was going. I told them I was going to stay at my friend Anna’s house. It was morally wrong for me to lie to my parents about where I was going.
According to determinism, “everything in the universe is entirely determined so that what ever happens at any given moment is the effect of some antecedent …show more content…
It is very similar to determinism when it comes to the belief that our actions are caused, but a distinguishing fact about compatibilism is that it believes that “although we are determined, we still have moral responsibilities” (pg 233). When looking at compatibilism we must first understand that there are two ways to look at the same action. There is the internalist view and the externalist view. According to the externalist point of view “all of our actions, including our motives, have sufficient antecedent causes (pg 234). However, based on the internalist point of view, there are two different types of actions—voluntary and involuntary. The difference between voluntary and involuntary behaviors is that voluntary (or free) actions have psychological states as their immediate causes, and involuntary (or unfree) actions have external affairs as their immediate causes (pg 234). Free actions are caused by reasons a person has, and nonfree actions are caused by “nonrational coercion” (pg 235). One of the main things that sets compatibilism apart from determinism is that it calls the actions that are caused by a person’s mental states voluntary, but they are still caused. A main belief of compatibilism is to “preserve the validity of the notion of accountability within a deterministic framework” (pg 231). The use of voluntary behavior helps compatibilism do this since free actions are caused by mental states rather than …show more content…
The first way would be from an internalist side, where we have to consider which type of action lying to my parents was. It could either be voluntary meaning the action was free or involuntary meaning the action is unfree. So based on the act being voluntary I could have lied to them based off of my beliefs and desires. I desired to go to the party because everyone else does. My desires of wanting to because everyone else does caused my action of lying. Also, my friends told me to go because I would have fun, and being told to go made me believe I would have fun. On the contrary, with the act being involuntary I lied to my parents because of some external event. An example of an external event would be because my friends threatened me to go or else they would not be friends with me anymore. So this threat caused my action to lie about where I was going. Furthermore, if my free actions of lying were voluntary then I could be held responsible for my actions even though it was still caused. The second way to look at the action of me lying is the externalist point of view. Based on this view, all of my actions and motives to lie had antecedent