The Thinker

Italian writer and television journalist Corrado Augias is drawing attention with a reflection on Machiavelli, arguing that the Florentine thinker's lessons remain relevant when politics loses sight of justice. The piece, circulating among Italian-speaking audiences, links Machiavelli's ideas to current political behaviour, prompting discussion about whether modern politicians forget ethical duties in pursuit of power.

Book and philosophy readers are sharing a line from Heraclitus's Fragments: "Without the sun, what day? What night?" The quote is being passed around in reading communities, prompting reflection on the ancient Greek thinker's meditations on nature, time and opposites. The chatter sits within ongoing enthusiasm for the pre-Socratic philosophers among online book circles.

Tyler Cowen has asked readers of Marginal Revolution to suggest questions for Tom Griffiths, the Princeton cognitive scientist known for work on human decision-making and co-author of 'Algorithms to Live By'. Readers are posting their questions in the comments ahead of an upcoming interview, in line with Cowen's usual practice of crowdsourcing prompts before conversations with prominent thinkers.

The New York Times reports that Anthropic co-founder Chris Olah spent months consulting religious scholars and thinkers from many faith traditions on how to give the Claude AI assistant a moral character. The scholars described the conversations about instilling ethics into artificial intelligence as striking and unexpected. The reporting has drawn attention to how leading AI companies are turning to religion and philosophy to guide chatbot behavior.

The author of "The Other Half", published on Substack under the name A Thinker In Nature, is promoting an essay that connects three questions: what the printing press enabled, what Descartes overlooked, and why humanity still cannot control its greenhouse gas emissions. The piece argues these questions share a resolution, framing climate inaction in terms of long-term intellectual history rather than policy or technology alone.

Participants in the German photo challenge #FotoVorschlag are posting images on the theme 'Warten auf Godot' (Waiting for Godot). One contributor shared a picture of Rodin's The Thinker set among autumn trees, noting it was a repost with a slightly different edit. The challenge invites playful takes each week on a suggested photographic theme.

A prominent Christian scholar known for work on artificial intelligence and human flourishing is scheduled to visit Whitworth University, a Christian institution in Spokane, Washington. The event signals growing interest among faith communities in how AI shapes human life and ethics. Further details about the speaker and the event program have not been provided.