Cognitive Enhancement - Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz

Allgemeines Promotionskolleg

Spezielle Promotionskollegs

Doktorandengruppen im Rahmen der Initiative PRO Geistes- und Sozialwissenschaften

Kognitive und klinische Mechanismen sozialer Ängstlichkeit und sozialer Phobien

Transnationale Unterstützung

Cognitive Enhancement

Erinnerung und Nationalfeiern in Afrika

Raum und Herrschaft

Prozesse politischer Integration

Deutsch-Italienischer Promotionsstudiengang

Deutsch-Französisches Doktorandenkolleg

Forum Junge Kulturwissenschaften

Fachbereichsbeauftragte

Studentische Gruppen

Promotionskollegs der Exzellenz

Gutenberg-Akademie

PhD Research Group on Cognitive Enhancement

“Cognitive enhancement” is the use of pharmaceuticals by healthy subjects to improve certain aspects of their cognitive abilities, such as memory, concentration, attentiveness and alertness and possibly to optimize them permanently. As an object of systematic research, cognitive enhancement has been discovered only recently. It raises a wealth of fascinating and important questions many of which are still awaiting analysis and discussion. These include, to give only a few examples, medical and psychiatric issues concerning possible effects (and side-effects) of potential enhancers; sociological issues concerning the present, past and predictable future prevalence of cognitive enhancement in different societies and social milieus as well as possible changes in social attitudes towards cognitive enhancement and the effects of such attitudinal changes on social practices; philosophical issues concerning ontological as well as ethical questions related to the intentional pharmaceutical manipulation of one’s own “healthy” brain; and issues of political and legal ethics concerning the regulation of the use of cognitive enhancers based on assessments of its impact on, e. g., social justice, equal opportunity and competitiveness, the levelling up of performance standards, the attribution of desert, or the protection from safety hazards.

The Cognitive Enhancement PhD Research Group brings together four researchers from four disciplines (Philosophy, Psychotherapy, Medical Ethics, and Political Science) whose research projects take on some of these aspects. The peculiarities of what cognitive enhancement is, and how it works (if it works) makes this not only a pluridisciplinary, but a truly interdisciplinary research group, since most interesting research topics on cognitive enhancement require at least some knowledge about and understanding of findings, developments, concepts and methods across the medical, philosophical, and social disciplines involved.

Applicants

Prof. Dr. Thomas Metzinger (Speaker of the Research Group; Department of Philosophy)
Prof. Dr. Klaus Lieb (Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Medical Center Mainz)
Prof Dr. Norbert Paul (Institute for History, Theory and Ethics of Medicine, University Medical Center Mainz)
Prof. Dr. Ruth Zimmerling (Department of Political Science)

Members of the Research Group

Yazan Abu Ghazal (yazan-at-uni-mainz.de)

Pavel Dietz (pdietz-at-uni-mainz.de):
Field of Research: “Cognitive Enhancement” and sports, Epidemiological studies of “braindoping” and doping in academics and sports

Ying-Tung Lin (liny-at-uni-mainz.de)
"Conceptual and normative issues in memory enhancement"

Stefan Schlag (schlag-at-uni-mainz.de)
"Cognitive Enhancement from a Political Theory Perspective"

Events

Regular Meeting:

Cognitive Enhancement Meeting
This meeting is organized for interdisciplinary discussion on issues concerning cognitive enhancement. Guests are welcome!
The meeting schedule will be communicated in due time to the subscribers of our CE-Meeting list. (Subscribe to ce-meeting—at—lists.uni-mainz.de)

Upcoming Events:

TBA

Past Events:

July 7 - 9, 2011
International Neuroethics Conference "Neuroenhancement"
University of Mainz, Germany

Feb 21 – March 1, 2011
International Conference for Young Scholars: Cognitive Enhancement
University of Mainz, Germany

Sep 14, 2010
IFSN-Meeting 2010: 'Cognitive Enhancement - Ethics and Society'
University of Mainz, Germany