Article I. On The Cognition Required For A Human Act

35. Cognition is the first foundation of a human act, so that without sufficient cognition a truly human act is altogether impossible. But cognition can turn chiefly upon a twofold object, namely: 1. upon the act itself, and 2. upon the morality of the act. As to the first, the agent must be conscious to himself of the action itself which he elicits, or he must have sufficient advertence to the action itself.¹ If this advertence is present, the elicited act is truly human. But besides this it is required that the agent attend to the morality of the action. Thus, for example, a man eating meat on Friday adverts to the act of eating; but he can totally forget the morality of this action, because he does not advert that it is Friday. - Inadvertence differs from ignorance in this, that it is the privation of actual cognition, while ignorance is commonly taken for the privation of habitual cognition. Hence wherever there is ignorance, there is also inadvertence, but not contrariwise. For one who knows something habitually can, from actual distraction, not attend to it. For the sake of clarity one must speak separately: 1. of advertence, 2. of ignorance, 3. of the influence of ignorance or inadvertence on human acts.

¹ Modern philosophers call this apperception.