Humans have a great desire to expand their cognitive abilities. Whether it’s to increase their productivity or just focus more to get a task done, there is an innate desire to have strong mental capacities. It’s therefore no surprise that when drugs that have proclaimed to increase cognitive capabilities such as memory, motivation, and attention, their use dramatically increased. These drugs called cognitive-enhancing (C.E.) drugs and they encompass a wide varying class of drugs. Many C.E. drugs are over-the-counter such as Priacetam and caffeine. Other C.E. drugs require prescriptions and more effective, and it includes Adderall, Modafinil and Ritalin. Students use over-the-counter and prescription C.E. drugs in hopes of increasing their ability
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The central issue is more specifically about whether students should decide to use C.E. drugs, not forcing them upon students. Many people argue that students should use C.E. drugs since it increases the students’ abilities and will make them better, however, this position has many problematic implications. Students shouldn’t use C.E. drugs since it disrupts the academic setting, and it doesn’t have substantial scientific support for its use.
The use of C.E. drugs disrupts the academic setting by creating an unfair advantage between C.E. drug users and non-users. The use of C.E. drugs is viewed as cheating or giving an unfair advantage to some students. In their study, "The Ethics of “Smart Drugs”: Moral Judgments About Healthy People's Use of Cognitive-Enhancing Drugs," psychologists Christel Scheske, et al, found that students at a “very competitive” university, students saw that the drugs give an “unfair advantage” (Scheske 3). The importance of this study is that it shows that even in an environment where students try to use the most of their cognitive capacities, they wouldn’t consider to use the C.E drugs since it’s unfair. There are 2 dimensions in which the students view the use of cognitive enhancements as unfair and
The central issue is more specifically about whether students should decide to use C.E. drugs, not forcing them upon students. Many people argue that students should use C.E. drugs since it increases the students’ abilities and will make them better, however, this position has many problematic implications. Students shouldn’t use C.E. drugs since it disrupts the academic setting, and it doesn’t have substantial scientific support for its use.
The use of C.E. drugs disrupts the academic setting by creating an unfair advantage between C.E. drug users and non-users. The use of C.E. drugs is viewed as cheating or giving an unfair advantage to some students. In their study, "The Ethics of “Smart Drugs”: Moral Judgments About Healthy People's Use of Cognitive-Enhancing Drugs," psychologists Christel Scheske, et al, found that students at a “very competitive” university, students saw that the drugs give an “unfair advantage” (Scheske 3). The importance of this study is that it shows that even in an environment where students try to use the most of their cognitive capacities, they wouldn’t consider to use the C.E drugs since it’s unfair. There are 2 dimensions in which the students view the use of cognitive enhancements as unfair and