PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Philipp Koralus

Philipp Koralus is a philosopher at the University of Oxford who studies human reasoning and how AI can serve human flourishing. He earned a joint PhD in Philosophy and Neuroscience at Princeton, and his 2023 book Reason and Inquiry sets out the erotetic theory of reasoning. In March 2023, he showed that GPT-3, GPT-3.5 and GPT-4 produced more human-like fallacies as they advanced, and a 2025 study built on his theory tested 38 models with the PyETR package. Oxford appointed him inaugural McCord Professor of Philosophy and AI in 2024, the year he founded the Human-Centered AI Lab to bring technologists and philosophers together. He is McCord Professor of Philosophy and AI and founding Director of that lab in Oxford's Institute for Ethics in AI.

Now at
Institute for Ethics in AI
Born
1982
Works
38
Citations
551
h-index
11
Badges

Years link to their sources. Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 22 October 2026.

Timeline

  1. By 2013

    Princeton PhD and early papers

    He earns a BA at Pomona College and becomes the first recipient of a joint PhD in Philosophy and Neuroscience at Princeton University. He also holds fellowships at the Notre Dame Institute for Advanced Study and at Washington University in St. Louis. In 2011, he is among the authors of the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience paper "Is morality unified?", and in 2013 he co-authors "The erotetic theory of reasoning" in Philosophical Perspectives.

  2. 2023

    The book Reason and Inquiry

    Oxford University Press publishes his book Reason and Inquiry: The Erotetic Theory in 2023. It argues that reason aims at resolving issues or answering questions as directly as possible, and it draws on philosophy, psychology, linguistics and artificial intelligence.

  3. March 2023

    Humans in Humans Out

    In March 2023, with Vincent Wang-Maścianica, he posts "Humans in Humans Out: On GPT Converging Toward Common Sense in both Success and Failure", which gives GPT-3, GPT-3.5 and GPT-4 61 inference and judgment problems from the erotetic theory. Human-like fallacious judgments rise from 18% in GPT-3 to 33% in GPT-3.5 and 34% in GPT-4.

  4. September 2024

    McCord Professor and HAI Lab

    In September 2024, Oxford's Faculty of Philosophy and Institute for Ethics in AI announce his appointment as McCord Professor of Philosophy and AI; he previously held the Fulford Clarendon Professorship of Philosophy and Cognitive Science. He leads the new Human-Centered AI Lab (HAI Lab), funded by the Cosmos Institute, which builds a pipeline from philosophy to code. "We aim to cultivate a new class of philosopher-technologists," he says.

  5. 2025

    An AI and philosophy seminar

    In 2025, he and Brendan McCord, Chair of the Cosmos Institute, co-deliver an Oxford seminar on AI and philosophy for graduate students, with visitors from Midjourney, Google DeepMind, Prime Intellect and Apple. The sessions range from truth-seeking AI systems to collective intelligence and privacy.

  6. June 2025

    PyETR tests on 38 models

    In June 2025, he is one of five authors of a study that uses PyETR, the open-source implementation of the Erotetic Theory of Reasoning, to generate 383 reasoning problems and evaluate 38 language models. As a model's capability proxy rises, a larger share of its incorrect answers are the fallacies that the theory predicts.

  7. May 2026

    The 2026 Cosmos Lecture

    In May 2026, he introduces the 2026 Cosmos HAI Lab Lecture at Oxford, delivered by Anthropic co-founder Jack Clark. A fireside chat between Clark and Brendan McCord of the Cosmos Institute follows.

  8. As of October 2026

    McCord Professor, HAI Lab director

    He is the inaugural McCord Professor of Philosophy and AI and founding Director of the Human-Centered AI Lab in Oxford's Institute for Ethics in AI, and a Fellow by Special Election at St. Catherine's College. His research ties philosophy to technology around the concepts of reason and agency, and aims to put AI in the service of human flourishing.

Career

  1. Since 2024University of OxfordFulford Clarendon Professor of Philosophy and Cognitive Science, McCord Professor of Philosophy and AI
  2. Since 2024Institute for Ethics in AIFounding Director

Education

  1. Pomona CollegeBachelor of Arts
  2. Princeton UniversityJoint PhD in Philosophy and Neuroscience

From the biography and OpenAlex affiliations (the years of papers that list the organization), so some years are approximate.

Most-cited works

  1. Is Morality Unified? Evidence that Distinct Neural Systems Underlie Moral Judgments of Harm, Dishonesty, and Disgust2011 · Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience · 158 citations
  2. THE EROTETIC THEORY OF REASONING: BRIDGES BETWEEN FORMAL SEMANTICS AND THE PSYCHOLOGY OF DEDUCTIVE INFERENCE2013 · Philosophical Perspectives · 91 citations
  3. The Erotetic Theory of Attention: Questions, Focus and Distraction2014 · Mind & Language · 74 citations
  4. Opportunities for agent‐based modelling in human dimensions of fisheries2020 · Fish and Fisheries · 35 citations
  5. Attention, consciousness, and the semantics of questions2013 · Synthese · 29 citations

From OpenAlex, as of 21 October 2026.

  1. The company share of AI researchers’ top papers was 31% in 2020–2024 and 8% in 1970–1974Includes University of Oxford. We estimate where the people shaping AI worked when their most-cited papers appeared: the company share was 31% in 2020–2024 and 8% in 1970–1974, and Google led all organizations in 2020–2024.
  2. The median h-index is 48 at universities and 14 at frontier AI labsIncludes University of Oxford. The median h-index is 48 at universities and 14 at frontier AI labs. We compare publishing careers, recent citations, dual appointments and job moves across 2,420 university researchers and 308 frontier-lab researchers.
  3. Companies supply the most prior-work hires at 7 of the 9 frontier AI labsIncludes University of Oxford. Our estimates of the organizations where 550 people worked directly before joining 9 frontier AI labs across 620 career transitions, comparing the main feeder organizations per lab.
  4. 84% of people shaping AI with recorded undergraduate and doctoral schools changed institutions for their doctorateIncludes University of Oxford. 84% of people shaping AI with recorded undergraduate and doctoral schools changed institutions for their doctorate. Across 2,116 people with both an undergraduate degree and a doctorate recorded, we trace which undergraduate schools feed which doctoral programs, how often students stay at the same school, and how paths differ by birth-country region.

Colleagues

People with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

Photo: We have no published photo of Philipp Koralus yet. Send us a free-licensed photo.

  1. Philipp Koralus | Philosophy of mind and cognitive science | Ethics of AI koralus.net. Checked 20 October 2026.
  2. Philipp Koralus | Ethics in AI oxford-aiethics.ox.ac.uk. Checked 20 October 2026.
  3. Oxford HAI Lab – The Laboratory for Human-Centered AI hailab.ox.ac.uk. Checked 20 October 2026.
  4. Reason and Inquiry: The Erotetic Theory - St Catherine's College stcatz.ox.ac.uk. Checked 20 October 2026.
  5. Humans in Humans Out: On GPT Converging Toward Common Sense in both Success and Failure arxiv.org. Checked 20 October 2026.
  6. Launch of new Human-Centered AI Lab | Faculty of Philosophy philosophy.ox.ac.uk. Checked 20 October 2026.
  7. New “Human-Centered AI Lab” at Oxford - Daily Nous dailynous.com. Checked 20 October 2026.
  8. 2025 Oxford Seminar: AI x Philosophy - Cosmos Institute blog.cosmos-institute.org. Checked 20 October 2026.
  9. Theory-Grounded Evaluation of Human-Like Fallacy Patterns in LLM Reasoning arxiv.org. Checked 20 October 2026.
  10. 2026 Cosmos HAI Lab Lecture – Oxford HAI Lab hailab.ox.ac.uk. Checked 20 October 2026.
  11. Oxford Philosophy, Law, and Politics Colloquium - Philipp Koralus | Ethics in AI oxford-aiethics.ox.ac.uk. Checked 20 October 2026.