The philosopher trying to teach ethics to AI developers; NPR, April 17, 2026

 Manoush Zomorodi, Fiona Geiran, Katie Monteleone, James Delahoussaye, Sanaz Meshkinpour, NPR; The philosopher trying to teach ethics to AI developers

"Sullivan is a philosophy professor at Notre Dame and the author of The Good Life Method: Reasoning Through the Big Questions of Happiness, Faith, and Meaning. Through Notre Dame's Institute for Ethics and the Common Good, she is meeting with AI leaders and developers to apply an ethical framework for AI — basically give AI a moral compass. Her mission is as ambitious as it sounds, but she is backed by Notre Dame's $50.8 million grant from the Lilly Endowment to champion philosophy and theology in the national conversation around AI.

Her reception in Silicon Valley has been mixed. She describes occasionally hearing comments akin to: "That's cute that you think that topics like virtue and justice could still be relevant in our world." But she finds that most developers are open and genuinely curious about philosophy. "I come out here, and I think, my gosh, I've been training for this for 25 years to have this conversation with you, says Sullivan. "And I'm so glad that now you're ready to do it."

In March, she attended Anthropic's 2-day summit, where Christian leaders discussed how Claude should approach the messy moral questions humans are bringing to chatbots. For instance, how should Claude react to a user who's grieving? What should it do when someone is at risk for self-harm?"

On James Talarico The Democratic Senate candidate is campaigning on his faith.; The New York Times, Believing Newsletter, January 18, 2026

 Lauren Jackson, The New York Times, Believing Newsletter; On James Talarico: The Democratic Senate candidate is campaigning on his faith.

"James Talarico has been taking classes to become a Presbyterian minister. And he wants you to know it.

At packed rallies, on Joe Rogan’s show and to his nearly two million Instagram followers, Talarico is constantly repeating his religious bona fides. He cites Scripture from memory and uses it to give theological answers to political questions. Even his campaign slogan has biblical roots. “It’s time to start flipping tables,” he says, referencing Jesus’s wrath in response to corruption at the temple in Jerusalem.

I’ve been watching Talarico for months, and I’ve been most struck by how deft he is at fusing philosophy with policy. He speaks often about compassion, care and even love. Not as a lofty ideal, but as something urgent. Something measurable.

“I believe love is a force as real as gravity,” he said in a long interview that aired on “The Ezra Klein Show” last week. “Love to me is the most powerful thing in the universe. It is not weak, it is not neutral, it is not passive. It doesn’t paper over disagreement.”"

GPT-5’s Ethics Guidelines for Using It in Philosophical Research; Daily Nous, September 10, 2025

  

Justin Weinberg

, Daily Nous; GPT-5’s Ethics Guidelines for Using It in Philosophical Research

"In a post last month, we discussed the question, “How much use of AI in our research is acceptable?...

What do you think of ChatGPT-5’s three positions regarding ethical AI use in research? Are they missing anything? Are they too demanding? Are they any good?"

Margaret Boden, Philosopher of Artificial Intelligence, Dies at 88; The New York Times, August 14, 2025

 Michael S. Rosenwald , The New York Times; Margaret Boden, Philosopher of Artificial Intelligence, Dies at 88

"As a philosopher of AI, Professor Boden was often asked if she thought that robots would, or could, take over society.

“The truth is that they certainly won’t want to,” she wrote in Aeon magazine in 2018.

Why? Because robots, unlike humans, don’t care.

“A computer’s ‘goals,’” she wrote, “are empty of feeling.”"

Holmes Rolston III, Pioneer of Environmental Ethics, Dies at 92; The New York Times, June 2, 2025

 John Motyka, The New York Times; Holmes Rolston III, Pioneer of Environmental Ethics, Dies at 92

"A life-defining moment for the environmental philosopher Holmes Rolston III came when he was forced out as pastor of the Presbyterian church in rural Rockbridge Baths, Va., in 1965.

It was a painful setback, prompted by his passion for science and the time off he took for hiking jaunts in the Shenandoah hills — pursuits that did not square with his conservative congregation’s view of a minister’s role.

But the dismissal propelled him on to a restless intellectual and spiritual journey, with stops as a trained theologian and a natural historian, until, as a newly minted philosophy professor, he posed a question that had been unasked or routinely dismissed since before Plato: Does nature have value?

His answer — that nature has intrinsic value apart from that derived from human perspectives — appeared in a groundbreaking essay in 1975 that launched his career as the globally recognized “father” of environmental ethics. Moreover, in tune with rising public concern about land, air, water and wildlife, his thesis heralded what the philosopher Allen Carlson called the “environmental turn” in philosophy after millenniums of neglect...

Professor Rolston’s essay “Is There an Ecological Ethic?” was published in the prestigious journal Ethics. It was the first major article in a philosophical journal to accord value to nature."

Authentic Librarianship and Procrustean Management; Library Journal, 10/24/13

Rick Anderson, Library Journal; Authentic Librarianship and Procrustean Management: "...neither the “hands-off” nor the “hands-on” style works perfectly in every situation. It would be tempting to think that an approach somewhere in the middle will work more universally, but that’s not necessarily true either—no single point on the “hands-on-to-hands-off” continuum will work equally well for everyone you have to manage... Across all of these dimensions of management, I think it’s less useful to think in terms of style than of philosophy. Style is about how you do things, whereas philosophy is about why you do them that way, and what your ultimate goals are. A philosophy can remain consistent even as you apply different styles and strategies in different situations."