A source says this:
There are two distinct forms of negligence: advertent (conscious) and inadvertent (unconscious).
(From "The Distinction between Conscious Negligence and Recklessness" by François Lareau.)
Are there also advertent and inadvertent mistakes?
As a matter of common definition, which may not be the definition used in some specialized and colloquial contexts, a 'mistake' is not usually if ever considered 'conscious', that is, intentional. Mistakes are 'inadvertent' and 'unintentional'. However, notice that a 'mistake' may be deliberate and thus 'conscious': I've knowingly made deliberate 'mistakes' in order to facilitate learning--for example, in chess, to learn how the 'mistake' or, more accurately, the 'error', might be exploited. Deliberate, or conscious, 'mistakes' however, draw on a dual understanding of 'mistake'; what may be considered a 'mistake' in a limited, special sense may at the same time be considered a productive strategy with a broader reference.
Comparing definitions supports the contention that the usual understanding of 'mistake' is 'unintentional error'. First, a common definition of 'mistake':
- An error or fault resulting from defective judgment, deficient knowledge, or carelessness.
- A misconception or misunderstanding.
[mistake. (n.d.) American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. (2011). Retrieved January 15 2016 from http://www.thefreedictionary.com/mistake .]
None of 'defective judgment', 'deficient knowledge', 'carelessness', admit of being consciously done at the time of the "error or fault". Nor are 'misconception' or 'misunderstanding', as types of error or fault, conscious.
There may be, however, a legal burden on citizens to remedy the 'defective judgment', 'deficient knowledge', or 'carelessness' before the error or fault takes place. It is in this sense that 'negligence' may be conscious; a secondary 'negligence' may be considered conscious because before an error or fault of 'defective judgment', etc., in short, before a 'mistake' has been committed, a primary duty of cultivating sound judgment (thus avoiding 'defective judgment'), acquiring sufficient knowledge (thus avoiding 'deficient knowledge') or exercising due care (thus avoiding 'carelessness') has been neglected.
Other definitions of 'mistake', from Collins English Dictionary, Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary, and The American Heritage® Roget's Thesaurus (see The Free Dictionary) do not significantly deviate from the definition presented in the American Heritage Dictionary. On the contrary, those definitions support the contention that mistakes are usually if not always considered inadvertent and unintentional:
mistake ... refers to an inadvertent deviation from accuracy, correctness, truth, or right conduct.
(Random House)
An act or thought that unintentionally deviates from what is correct, right, or true ....
(American Heritage Thesaurus)
I think there is no symmetry between negligence and mistakes. Negligence can be advertent, which means, one is deliberately remiss in his/her work. But a mistake is always inadvertent because otherwise it's not a mistake but sabotage, subversive activity, etc. I saw a movie, though, the title of which I don't remember, where a young man, a son of aristocrats, who was trying to pass for a plebeian in the aftermath of the French revolution, deliberately made mistakes in his college essays. Those were advertent ones!
Yes, there are conscious mistakes. People consciously screw up all the time. People realize that what they're doing is a mistake, but in the inertia of events, they keep on plodding forward into that mistake. Often, by the time one realizes something is a mistake, it's too late to change course, or some other emotion overrides to keep them committed to their mistake, like pride or a need for approval.
Example:
Someone tries heroin and gets addicted. They've been taught all their lives not to even try heroin because it's instantly addictive and instantly destroys peoples lives. Yet knowing all that doesn't stop them. And how often do you hear people who have been caught up into heroin addiction later say, "You know, I knew it was a huge mistake when I did it, but I went ahead and did it anyway?"
The complexity of the human condition certainly allows for a person to consciously and even avoidably make an mistake. I don't think the term "inadvertent mistake" is at all redundant, not innately.
'Advertent' is a recognized word (with dictionary definitions) but both rare and not commonly understood correctly and is not the antonym of 'inadvertent'
'Inadvertent' means unplanned, not intended, unintentional, mistaken.
'Advertent' is a rare word means giving attention, heedful, not the opposite of inadvertent.
There are lots of common words that have negative prefixes, where if you remove the prefix the remaining word is either nonexistent or very rare and is not necessarily the opposite. A short list of such words is:
