Daniel Kodsi

I am finishing a DPhil in Philosophy at Trinity College, Oxford, under the supervision of Timothy Williamson and Ofra Magidor. My thesis is called "No Exceptions: Essays in metaphysics and epistemology" and explores topics including higher-order identity, causation, and mental state ascription. Before my DPhil, I received a distinction on the BPhil in Philosophy at Balliol College, Oxford. My undergraduate degree, also at Balliol, was in Philosophy, Politics and Economics; I received a first and won the Gibbs Prize in Philosophy.

Writing

Above and Below the Storm: an essay on Bong Joon-Ho's Parasite. Metaphysical Dangers, and the Danger of Metaphysics: an interview with Mark Johnston. Complemented by a written Q&A. No Mercy: a review of Malcolm Bull's On Mercy. On a Recent Abduction: a review of Tim Williamson's Doing Philosophy. At an Intimate Distance: a review of Yorgos Lanthimos' The Favourite. Flaws and Forgiveness: an interview with Miranda Fricker. In a Quizzical Spirit: an interview with Stephen Yablo. Genealogical Anxiety: an interview with Amia Srinivasan. Epistemic Vice: an interview with Quassim Cassam. Two Kinds of Murder: an interview with Philippe Sands.

Publications

2021. Review of Christian List's Why Free Will is Real (with Alexander Kaiserman). Mind, 130(519): 987-996. 2019. Review of Carolina Sartorio's Causation and Free Will (with Alexander Kaiserman). Criminal Law and Philosophy, 13(3): 551-559.

Other Work

Under Review "Causal proportionality revisited" (with Alexander Kaiserman). Critiques extant accounts of causal proportionality and defends a simple contextualist alternative. R&R at Mind. "Hyperintensionalism and overfitting: a test case". Critiques Cian Dorr's hyperintensional theory of higher-order identity. In Preparation "Knowledge, error and inconsistency". Motivates and explores the philosophical significance of cases of knowing p and believing not-p. "Modelling causation on action". Uses cognitive considerations to motivate an austerely simple model of causation. "A quotational heuristic". Explores error-theoretic consequences of a conjectured cognitive default of treating "that p" and "'p'" as interchangeable. "Fictionalism and overfitting". Provides a full-dress methodological critique of fictionalism in the philosophy of mathematics. "Causing, making, killing and having (someone) killed". Draws morals for the metaphysics of causation from the lexical semantics of causative verbs. "Unrestricted exportation and knowledge-wh". Responds to Kripke's objections to unrestricted exportation and draws consequences for knowledge-wh ascriptions. On Hold "Harm, causation and counterfactuals". Shows how a simple causal account of harm combined with restrictive background assumptions predicts the successes and failures of counterfactual and non-comparative accounts of harm. "Existential triage". Argues that non-identity cases pose no special problem.