Definition of "inertness" [in•ert•ness]

• Want of activity or exertion; habitual indisposition to action or motion; sluggishness; apathy; insensibility. (noun)
• Absence of the power of self-motion; inertia. (noun)
• Quality of being unreactive with other chemical compounds or elements. (noun)

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• "How does the notion of inertness come at all, then?"
• "Thus we shall speak of matter as showing the attribute of 'inertness', when it is subject to mechanical causation, of 'alertness', when it is subject to magical causation."
• "It is certainly possible, as we have seen, for the victory of malice over love to be accompanied by thrilling pleasure; but, when this happens malice has lost something of its "inertness" by drawing to itself and corrupting for its own use the dynamic energy of love."