[selflesssieve]

I view willpower as Harry fighting off the Dementors in the Prisoner of Azkaban. He thought his dad was going to show up at any minute and fight off the Dementors (a powerful allegory for depression), but Harry realized he had to fight for himself. Once he realized that he radiated joy and fought off the horde of Dementors.

As an aside, I believe we would be prudent to not give in to substances/habits that form addictions. You could say that John/Thomas have incredibly high willpower that they are willing to keep poisoning themselves even though they consciously know the effects. The dependence on alcohol was trained, and now they have an abundance of "willpower" to continue doing just that.

[benj111]

"I believe we would be prudent to not give in to substances/habits that form addictions"

I take it you're referring to abstention?

That would be very hard to do given the wide variety of addictions (everything?)

Think of addiction as a symptom rather than a problem in its own right, the article briefly goes there by revealing that one of the men was stressed.

[selflesssieve]

First, I apologize, I didn't word my first sentence as syntactically clear as I realized. Give in is a bit of a loose term here. Instead I would say that a person should recognize their habits changing due to the substance and they would avoid over indulging before it was too late. A period of abstinence may be necessary here to reset tolerances/ align short term and long term goals.

Second, for your last point, the man seeks a coping mechanism for his stress, but does he lack agency and therefore colloquial willpower when he decides which cooping mechanism he chooses? (That's an up in the air question for a more generalized form.)

[benj111]

First paragraph, agreed (excepting highly addictive drugs).

I suppose you could argue someone were searching for agency by doing a self destructive thing. I don't think willpower comes into it. Although I would agree willpower and agency are related insofar as if you don't feel you have agency, its probably hard to show much willpower.

[selflesssieve]

Yes, but why didn't they choose to do something positive and stress relieving? That is where I believe agency comes in to the amassing of willpower.

But I guess this is why everyone is having a back and forth on here. It arises from ones own philosophical belief on external vs internal loci of control.

[benj111]

Plus peoples own life experiences, and temperaments!