This seems kind of similar to the Jewish notion of the yetzer tov and yezter ra. Basically the idea is that the yetzer tov is the inclination to do good and the yetzer ra the inclination to do bad, but there's a strong sense in the rabbinic literature that if humans didn't have the yetzer ra, we'd have no motivation to do anything but pray and study, so the fields would go untended, children would not be born, and humanity would die out.