- published: 31 Dec 2015
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Joseph Zalman Margolis (born May 16, 1924) is an American philosopher. A radical historicist, he has published many books critical of the central assumptions of Western philosophy, and has elaborated a robust form of relativism.
His philosophical affinities include Protagoras, Hegel, C.S. Peirce, John Dewey, Ludwig Wittgenstein, W.V. Quine.
Joseph Margolis was the son of Jewish immigrants from central Europe. His father, a dentist, read widely in literature and was proficient in four languages.
Margolis served in World War II as a paratrooper and was wounded during the Battle of the Bulge, where lost his only brother, a twin. He studied at Columbia University, earning the M.A. (1950) and Ph.D (1953) in philosophy. His contemporaries at Columbia have included the art theorist Arthur C. Danto and the philosopher Marx Wartofsky.
Margolis has taught at numerous universities in the United States and Canada and has lectured throughout Europe, in Japan, New Zealand, and South Africa. Since 1991, he has held the Laura H. Carnell Chair of Philosophy at Temple University.