The capabilities approach as ethical foundation for a cognition policy based on a metric of 'cognitive footprint' (360G-Wellcome-201605_Z_16_Z)

Cognition (the set of all mental abilities) is quintessential to human functioning and it is one of society’s most valuable assets. However, unlike physical health, disability, economic growth or happiness it has never become a focal point of public policy. Nonetheless, cognitive functioning is dynamic; changes throughout the life course and a wide range of variables affect it, positively or negatively. In a recent discussion piece in The Lancet (by two of the applicants of this proposal) a case was made for a cognition policy and a metric for policy evaluation, coined ‘cognitive footprint’. In this project we want to investigate the ethical basis of such a cognition metric for policy evaluation purposes. A promising starting point is Sen’s ‘capabilities approach’ to the goals and limitations of public policy, which defines real wellbeing in terms of human development and flourishing rather than in terms of wealth or happiness. This framework has become influential in many domains of health and social care and seems to offer the right basis to explore the contours of an ethical cognition policy.