In "The Arts and the Definition of the Human," Margolis introduces a novel theory of the human person or self as a historical artifact and argues that important topics in the philosophy of art, pictorial representation, and the nature of interpretation make no sense when separated from a "philosophical anthropology" along the lines he suggests.

Joseph Margolis is the Laura H. Carnell Professor of Philosophy at Temple University. His most recent book is Moral Philosophy after 9/11(2004).