Vitality, Self-Interest, Self-Indulgence

As has been previously discussed, one's promotion of one's Motility has priority over, but without precluding, one's promotion of the Motility of others. Now, Motility can also be understood as Vitality. Hence, one's promotion of one's vital Self-Interest does not preclude the promotion of that of others. In contrast, Self-Indulgence is a terminal state, entailing no further consequences. Thus, self-indulgent behavior is both anti-social, and a promotion of Inertia. Likewise, the common concept of the 'individual' as an isolated entity hypostasizes the vital Self, i. e. de-vitalizes it. So, Smith's brief worry that the mechanistic division of labor fragments a society misses the deeper problem of the promotion of Inertia, a problem that is already implicit in his failure to distinguish the promotion of one's vital Self-Interest from that of Self-Indulgence.