Socratic Morality

Constitutional AI Governance Framework - Building trustworthy, accountable multi-agent systems grounded in Socratic philosophy.

"It is better to suffer injustice than to commit it." — Plato's Gorgias

Quick Start

pip install socratic-morality

from socratic_morality import Governor

governor = Governor(constitution="constitution.yaml", llm_provider="anthropic")
decision = await governor.evaluate(
    action="Access user's private data",
    purpose="Personalization",
    actor="recommendation_agent",
    context={"user_id": "user_123"}
)

Documentation

• API Reference
• Philosophy Guide
• Examples

Complete Module Architecture (7 Modules)

Phase 1 - Foundation (3 modules)

1. Governor - Core decision-making engine

   • Constraint checking and validation
   • Decision tracking with audit trails
   • Multi-dimensional decision analysis

2. Constitution Framework - YAML-based governance

   • Supreme principles and axioms
   • Named principles with severity levels
   • Agent capabilities and permissions
   • Action policies and constraints
   • Escalation rules and approval workflows

3. CapabilityToken System - Fine-grained access control

   • Token-based permissions
   • Resource authorization
   • Capability validation
   • Storage backends (SQLite, PostgreSQL)

Phase 2 - Ethical Reasoning (3 modules)

4. Multi-Framework Ethical Analysis

   • Kantian deontological analysis (duty, dignity, universality)
   • Utilitarian consequentialist analysis (benefit/harm, extremes)
   • Virtue ethics analysis (virtues, vices, flourishing)
   • Rights-based analysis (fundamental rights, consent)
   • LLM integration with keyword analysis fallback

5. Moral Precedent Engine - Case-based reasoning

   • Decision storage and retrieval
   • Similarity-based matching
   • Consistency analysis
   • Precedent clustering and history

6. Explanation Generation - Transparent reasoning

   • Reasoning artifact export
   • Decision justification
   • Explanation reports
   • Framework analysis summaries

Phase 3 - Advanced Governance (4 modules - NEW ✨)

7. Constitutional Enforcer - Active principle enforcement

   • Real-time principle verification
   • Principle violation detection with severity levels
   • Agent capability validation
   • Constitutional reasoning generation

8. Unified Governance API - Single entry point for all decisions

   • evaluate(action, context, actor) - Main interface
   • Constitutional checks (first gate)
   • Integrated ethical deliberation (4 frameworks)
   • Precedent analysis with semantic similarity
   • Threat detection and anomaly analysis
   • Optional interactive Socratic dialogue
   • Complete decision history and explanation reports
   • Batch evaluation support

9. Socratic Dialogue Engine - Interactive ethical reasoning

   • 8 Socratic approaches (exposing contradictions, testing universality, examining assumptions, probing consequences, inviting counterarguments, clarifying definitions)
   • 7 question categories (stakeholder, consequence, principle, alternative, assumption, vulnerability, outcome)
   • 40+ built-in Socratic questions
   • Interactive dialogue with Claude LLM
   • Dialogue synthesis and insight extraction
   • Dialogue history tracking

10. Semantic Precedent Matching - Advanced similarity search

    • Sentence-transformer embeddings (semantic matching)
    • Combined lexical + semantic similarity (40/60 blend)
    • Embedding caching for performance
    • Precedent clustering by conclusion type
    • Context-aware relevance scoring

Phase 3 Extensions (3 modules - NEW ✨)

11. Care Ethics Framework - Relational moral analysis

    • Relationship mapping and analysis
    • Vulnerability assessment
    • Care response adequacy evaluation
    • Care violation detection
    • Emphasis on interdependence and caring

12. Remediation Engine - Constraint violation handling

    • 5 remediation strategies:
      • MODIFY_ACTION: Adjust action parameters
      • ADD_SAFEGUARDS: Add protective measures
      • REJECT_AND_PROPOSE_ALTERNATIVE: Suggest better approach
      • ESCALATE_WITH_CONSTRAINTS: Allow with restrictions
      • ROLLBACK: Reverse decisions
    • Intelligent suggestion generation
    • Auto-remediation for safe violations
    • Decision rollback capability
    • Complete audit trail

13. Resource Monitor - Real-time resource enforcement

    • CPU, memory, file descriptor, process monitoring
    • Soft and hard limit enforcement
    • Violation detection and escalation
    • Comprehensive usage reporting
    • Session-based monitoring lifecycle
    • Integration with sandbox execution

Release Status

v0.0.5 - COMPLETE ✅ (May 2026)

All 13 modules fully implemented, tested, and documented:

• Phase 1: 3 foundation modules ✅
• Phase 2: 3 ethical reasoning modules ✅
• Phase 3: 4 advanced governance modules ✅
• Phase 3 Extensions: 3 specialized modules ✅

Available on PyPI:

pip install socratic-morality==0.0.5

Test Coverage: 100% (71/71 tests passing) Code Quality: All linting and type checks passing Documentation: Complete API docs and examples included

License

MIT License - See LICENSE for details

Part of Socrates AI Ecosystem

This package is a component of Socrates AI, a production-ready platform for building intelligent multi-agent systems with constitutional governance.

Use This Package Standalone:

pip install socratic-morality

Or As Part of Socrates Platform:

pip install socrates-ai  # Includes 37+ modules + all 11 packages

Integration Example:

See the Socrates ECOSYSTEM.md for detailed integration examples showing how to use socratic-morality with other Socratic packages.

Related packages you might use together:

• See Complete Package Map

More Information:

• 📖 Full Socrates Documentation
• 🏗️ Complete Architecture Guide
• 💬 Socrates Discussions