Academics
EthosForge
Navigate ethical dilemmas across science, technology, history, and daily life with an AI Socratic tutor. Build ethical reasoning through structured debate, perspective-taking, and case analysis.
Meet your mentor
Every Spark & Anvil app has a friendly mentor character that demonstrates, praises, and patiently scaffolds learning. On-device AI personalizes the mentor's responses to your kid's progress — never connecting to a server, never collecting data.
Mentored by Lyceum
#4A6FA5 EthosForge is a philosophy garden where you think about big questions! Should you always tell the truth? Is it ever okay to break a rule? Navigate ethical dilemmas with an AI tutor who asks you questions (instead of just giving answers), build argument maps to organize your thinking, and debate with virtual philosophers. The more you think, the more Wisdom XP you earn!
Distributed-narrative cast
Meet the cast
EthosForge's 10-character framework-advocate cast embodies the canonical ethical-reasoning traditions — consequentialism, deontology, virtue ethics, care ethics, contractualism — via a FLIPPED METHODOLOGY: characters are *interlocutors*, not *answer-keys*. UNIQUE DESIGN CONSTRAINT (UNIQUE in the entire retrofit cluster): equal screen time / equal speaking quality / equal visual sophistication / no mentor-student framing within the cast / no 'right answer' framing / equal humor distribution / no gendered cultural stereotypes / animal-headed framing. Solo-advocate scenes BANNED; every kit surfaces at least 2 advocates so the kid stays in the *judge* seat. Catchphrases ~6-8 words each, simple grade-4 vocabulary, template-locked — no advocate gets a 'wittier' line. Mentor is the only voice that scaffolds reasoning quality; NEVER endorses a framework. Pre-existing sage_*.webp mascot re-slugged to ethos_*.webp.
Consequence
Consequentialism / Utilitarianism — calm, methodical; weighs trade-offs; capybara at a balance-scale
Read chapter →
Duty
Deontology / Kantian — upright, principled; sticks to rules even when costly; heron in vest on one leg
Read chapter →
Virtue
Virtue Ethics / Aristotelian — steady, earnest; 'what kind of person do I want to be?'; badger tending a plant
Read chapter →
Care
Care Ethics / Noddings + Gilligan — attentive, present; 'ethics begins in relationship'; otter listening beside empty spot
Read chapter →
Contract
Contractualism / Scanlon + Rawls — collaborative; 'what could we ALL agree to?'; beaver drawing a fair-rules table
Read chapter →
Bound
Rights ethics — each person has protections you may not cross, even for a good outcome; pangolin who curls to shield ('some lines you never cross')
Read chapter →
Kin
Ecological ethics — the circle of concern reaches to animals, living systems, and the not-yet-born; elephant asking 'who else has to live with this?'
Read chapter →
Tinker
Pragmatism — try a small step, watch what really happens, be willing to change; raccoon with busy testing paws ('try it, watch, be ready to change')
Read chapter →
Own
Existentialist responsibility — you are free, so you own your choices (never a stick to blame the trapped); sure-footed mountain goat ('you chose it, so you own it')
Read chapter →
Sense
Moral sentiment — the heart's feeling of sympathy is real moral information, the start of ethics (not the whole map); soft-eared dog ('first, what does your heart notice?')
Read chapter →
Browse all 10 chapters → · What's distributed-narrative methodology? →
What's inside
Dilemma Cards
Each dilemma presents a tricky situation with no easy answer. Read the scenario, consider different viewpoints, and make your choice. There are no "wrong" answe
Argument Maps
Organize your thinking visually. Drag and connect boxes to show how your reasons support your conclusion. See how different people can reach different answers u
Socratic Tutor
The AI tutor does not tell you what to think. Instead, it asks questions that help you think deeper. "Why do you believe that?" "What if the situation was diffe
Philosophy Garden
Walk through a garden filled with famous philosopher characters. Talk to Socrates, Confucius, and others to learn their ideas and perspectives.
Mentored by Lyceum — on-device AI, no data leaves the device.
How EthosForge handles your kid's data
- ✅ All progress, settings, and AI-generated content stays on the device
- ✅ No analytics, no tracking, no third-party SDKs
- ✅ No ads, no in-app purchases — you pay once
- ✅ COPPA compliant under the 2026 FTC amendments
- ✅ Parental controls + session limits + content filters built in
EthosForge runs on ForgeKit — the open-source Swift Package Manager framework that powers every Spark & Anvil app. ForgeKit ensures consistent accessibility, COPPA compliance, and design language across the portfolio, so your kid's progress and preferences feel coherent across every app they touch.
Coming to the App Store
EthosForge is in active development. Email us to hear when it ships — no marketing, no spam, just a one-shot launch announcement.
Email me at launch