If the WILL is always towards GOOD, then why Man still do evil or bad?

Question

my professor in philosophy left us this question to be answered. please helpl me to answer this. thanks!

The WILL is always towards what is Good. Man has a Will. But why is it that man would still do evil or bad if the will is towards good?

Answer 1

Who says the will is always towards what is good? William Blake (not to mention Nietzsche and Schopenhauer!) thought differently:

"There can be no Good Will. Will is always Evil; it is persecution to others or selfishness."

[Blake, annotation to Swedenborg's `Wisdom of Angels Concerning Divine Love and Divine Wisdom'.]

Always question the premises: first presupposition of philosophy (otherwise it's sophistry).

Answer 2

Freedom of choice. And often times the "right" way is not the easiest way. Taking the high road is not always the most clear path. Some people would rather take the  simpler or quicker route, and often it turns out that it's the "wrong" one.  

Answer 3

Who's the judge of what's truley good or bad.  Can we ever really determine the will behind each act. Your professor left you with a very  vague question. If he had been more spacific you'd have a better idea of how to answer that.

Who's to decide a thief is good or bad. My grand mother had to steal fruit in order to feed her children or my girlfriend stole thing in order to feed her habit. Both are thieves who broke the law and both did so in desprate times but ohhh I could go on and on here...  

Answer 4

The problem is in the question. The will is not towards good or evil. The will, like the people who own it, is towards its own self interest. People will choose between good and evil depending on which one benefits them the most. Lying is evil, but everyone lies to get a job, even a politician, who we all trust.  Yet, it is good to rat out on the politician who takes bribes from special interest groups because that benefits the mass media who make big bucks reporting on such nonsense.

Answer 5

The most obvious way to answer this question is to question the first part of the statement: who says the will is always toward good.

In Christian terms, choosing the good has meaning only if there is the possibility of choosing the other way. If we had no choice about what to pick, then opting for what is good would itself be meaningless since we could not do otherwise. Therefore it has to be possible for humanity to select evil.

And for this reason sometimes good will not be selected. Moreover--again in Christian terminology--evil has to be a real choice for evil to be meaningful. In other words freedom is a precondition for an existence that has any pretension to significance whatsoever even though God's dominance ensures that even evil serves the ends of the overall good.

Answer 6

and who says there is a will anyway