Selves and Other Texts

Joseph Margolis is Laura H. Carnell Professor of Philosophy at Temple University. His previous books include What, After All, Is a Work of Art? (Penn State Press, 1999).

“This book [presents] a bold and eloquent defense of ‘cultural realism’. . . as this applies to the arts and, in lesser degree, history and literature. Throughout, major epistemological and metaphysical issues—especially those raised by the artwork (e.g., its ontological status, its referential powers, holism, its constative claims, etc.)—are addressed, with ingenious and intriguing solutions offered, fresh at every turn. . . . A distinctive contribution of this book is its catholicity of outlook, which allows Margolis to draw upon and merge the best insights of both analytical and continental traditions in philosophy. There is no one in today’s philosophical world who has a comparable mastery of both of these often antithetical traditions—and who is able to combine them so skillfully and creatively. . . . The result is a book that will be of broad appeal to practitioners and students of both schools of philosophical thought. . . . No other book combines such an effective critique of the views of others in aesthetics and the humanities generally with such an original point of view as his own.”—Edward S. Casey, SUNY, Stony Brook