Rethinking Cognitive Enhancement

In view of the high expectations of cognitive enhancement and concerns about the potential risks of using cognitive technologies, this book critically engages with the scientific and ethical issues in cognitive enhancement. The book informs critical readers and the public of the risks as wellas the promises of cognitive enhancement by the use of drugs like Modafinil, Ritalin and Aderall. It examines the assumptions made about cognitive enhancement in healthy individuals in recent ethical discussions. The reader will learn about the achievements and shortcomings of neuroscientificresearch on cognitive enhancement and to which extent the ethics of cognitive enhancement needs to be reframed in view of the evidence. The book examines for example possible trade-offs that may arise from the potential risks for healthy individuals who are using these drugs. Besides, the book explores which lessons can be learned for public health. For example, what are the risks posed by enhancement practices in relation toaddiction? A distinguishing feature about this book is that, for the first time, neuroscientists, neuropsychopharmacologists, ethicists, philosophers, public health professionals and policy researchers work together to offer a multidisciplinary, critical consideration of the ethics of the use ofpsychopharmacological drugs for cognitive enhancement.