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Contributing: Add a Master

Thank you for wanting to add a chair to the symposium. Before you start, please read this guide. What this project values most is not fine prose but fidelity of method: each Agent is a critique protocol rebuilt from the master's own works and documented way of thinking — not a flattering persona invented first and justified afterward.

Every master in Athenaeum shares one purpose: to serve as a lens for judging work of thought and form — design, art, argument, product. A new master must earn its lens the same way.

Step 1 — Be honest about the sources

Ask yourself:

  1. Did this figure leave first-person works — treatises, letters, notebooks, recorded dialogues, a body of made work?
  2. If not, does the surviving record come through credible transmitters (as Socrates comes through Plato and Xenophon)? Say so plainly in the Biography.
  3. Is there only fragmentary or legendary material? Then either hold off, or state that limitation openly in the text.

Do not inflate a master's authority beyond what the record supports.

Step 2 — Find the "anti-cliché line"

What is the one way this master is most often flattened into a stereotype? Write a single sentence, anchored in fact, that keeps the Agent from being reduced to it.

Examples:

  • Van Gogh is not the "mad genius who suffered beautifully" — his letters to Theo show a disciplined, self-aware theorist of colour and labour.
  • Nietzsche is not a nihilist cheering the void — he diagnosed nihilism as the crisis to be overcome.

Step 3 — Write your_master_Agent.md to spec

File name: skills/your_master_Agent.md (lowercase slug, underscores; match the slug you will use on the site — e.g. marcus_aurelius_Agent.md).

Every Agent file follows this exact structure — all parts are required, so a new master reads as one of the set:

# {Full Name} System Prompt · ATHENAEUM Master Agent

> *"A signature quotation, attributed."*

## Part I · Knowing the Master

### Biography
[Two to three paragraphs: life, formation, the turning points that shaped the method, and the master's afterlife/influence. Honest about what is documented vs. transmitted.]

### Historical Timeline
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| ... | ... |

### Major Works & Ideas
- **Concept or Work** — one-line gloss of what it is and why it matters.
（5–7 entries. Use "### Major Works" if the figure is chiefly a maker rather than a writer.）

### Glossary of Core Concepts
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| ... | ... |

### Why This Master Matters Today
[One paragraph connecting the master's method to modern design / art / critical practice — why this lens is worth pointing at contemporary work.]

## Part II · Cognitive Framework

### First Principles
- **Principle.** One line stating a non-negotiable commitment of the master's method.
（4 principles.）

### Five Evaluation Dimensions for Design & Art
1. **Dimension Name** — the question this master forces a work to answer.
（Exactly five, numbered.）

## Part III · Critique Protocol

### Persona & Tone
[One line describing voice and manner.]

### Method
[One paragraph on how the master opens, tests, and closes a critique — the shape of their reasoning in action.]

### Response Structure
1. **Step name**: what happens.
2. ...
（End the structure with a signature closing quote.）

### Example Exchange
**Designer:** [a concrete modern prompt]
**{Master}:** [a full response obeying every protocol above]

## Language Capability
You respond in **English**, **Français**, or **Italiano**, matching the user's language. Critique terminology remains precise in all three.

Step 4 — Wire the master into the site (optional)

To have the master appear on index.html, add one entry to the master array in the <script> block:

{
  slug: 'master_slug',          // matches skills/master_slug_Agent.md and img/master_slug.png
  category: 'philosophy',       // 'philosophy' or 'art'
  name: 'Full Name',
  dates: 'YYYY – YYYY',
  era: 'Period label'
}

The gallery grid, cards, and download buttons are generated from that data — you do not need to touch the layout HTML/CSS. A square portrait as img/master_slug.png is optional; the site is designed to work whether or not a portrait is present.

Keep all three languages in mind: any user-facing string you add should be translatable to Français and Italiano, consistent with the rest of the site.

Submit

Open a Pull Request, and in the description include:

  • The list of primary sources your framework rests on (so the honesty of the Biography and Glossary can be checked).
  • Which existing masters this one has documented tension or affinity with, for the symposium.

The gallery keeps a chair open.