Self evaluation of debate

Cognitive enhancement can seem very appealing. Having your mind clear, doing well in class, exceeded concentration. All of that seems like bliss when you're tired and can't think while doing important work, such as an ethics SAC.


But although the temptation, I would say overall that cognitive enhancement should not be used for people who don't desperately need it, such as people with neurological disorders like ADHD. I do not think there is an overall objective truth to this, not yet anyway, and that in cases it can very relative.


I see that cognitive enhancement can be a way of cheating. Just as steroids and drugs that enhance your physicality are seen as bad and cheating, cognitive enhancement is an academic way of cheating. It is hard to see a line in people between 'I'm taking these to get the top mark' and 'I genuinely want to gain knowledge'.


From a Christian perspective, even if an individual did use them genuinely to gain knowledge, the extent of what a person wants to learn can be bad. If a Christian wanted knowledge so much that he placed it before God, cognitive enhancement would be frowned upon. Not all people are Christian, though, and so expecting them to put God before anything wouldn't be expected. But if they put their lust for knowledge before friends, family, and used cognitive enhancement to get it, even society would frown upon it.


I think cognitive enhancement should be left for people with neurological disorders to choose. It is supposed to help calm them and medicate their minds so that they can at least be seen as normal, but if healthy people enhance their minds, the mentally disabled are again left way behind.


Cognitive enhancement, to me, can be seen as any illegal drug which affects the brain. It can become addictive, and can have negative side affects, and also a way of escaping working hard to get past an individual's problems.


My brother has taken ritalin, and has told me that it messed up his mind. He wasn't able to shut off his mind and by the time school was over, he was so tired that he had to nap for hours. However, he did mention that he might start taking the tablets again once he starts university.


Overall, I do not think cognitive enhancement is appropriate for people without neurological disorders such as ADHD. My conscience tells me it is wrong, my values of trying hard to achieve great things instead of cheating, the scientific research that tells me it has negative side affects and can behave like an illegal drug, and even the thought of cognitive enhancement helping people put knowledge before God (like in the garden of Eden), I conclude that I find cognitive enhancement inappropriate, (no matter how appealing it may be).