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This article aims at questioning the promise of cognitive optimization based on the promotion of substances classified as “nootropics”. This paper focuses on the circulation of this promise and the products that support it, as well as on contemporary practices resulting from this market and the new possibilities offered by the Internet. First, I retrace the scientific, media and commercial history of modafinil, a drug presented as the reference smart drug in this perspective of self-optimization. Secondly, I analyse the French nootropics market and its promoters. I highlight the circulation of French dietary supplements, in the form of a grey market of pharmacological recycling through the promotion of old or new substances. I also discuss the conditions of performativity of this promise of cognitive optimization by focusing on the argumentative assembly used by the promoters of these practices and its embodied dimension.

Psychopharmacological cognitive enhancements could lead to a higher quality of life of healthy individuals with lower cognitive capacities, but the current regulatory framework does not seem to enable access to this group. This article discusses why Sen’s Capability Approach could open up such access, while two other modern social justice theories – utilitarianism and Rawls’ Justice as Fairness – could not. In short, the utilitarian approach is proven to be inadequate, due to practical reasons and having a low chance of real-world success. Rawls’ Justice as Fairness seems to be problematic because of conflicting stances that follow from his First Principle of Justice. The Capability Approach has the greatest chance of success in the context of these substances, because of arguments that can be identified under the banners of agency/self-respect and the way the public views those who take the capability path out of their poor situation. The article also discusses general and practical problems with psychopharmacological cognitive enhancement that should be addressed when writing new policy on this topic.