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A longtime member of the faculty at Temple University, Professor Margolis wrote very widely in philosophy, perhaps being best-known for his version of pragmatism and his contributions to aesthetics. I will add links to memorial notices as they appear.
(Thanks to Noel Carroll for the information about Professor Margolis's death.)
Margolis was a gifted on-the-spot limerick creator. Once I was talking with him about Henry of Ghent on the principle of individuation of substances and remarked that Henry might not have known what he meant. Margolis created the following, on the spot, which I remember all these many years later:
There once was a Henry of Ghent
whose life was terribly misspent
He ruined his career
swilling down cheap bear
and never quite knew what he meant.
Joe Margolis, a philosopher who fought in the Battle of the Bulge, was the gold standard for anyone interested in working in analytic philosophy, continental philosophy, and the American pragmatist traditions — all contemporary Western traditions — in interaction with each other and at the highest level. In a class all alone by himself.
so true, so true … and so true.
Interested readers should know that there will be a memorial notice in the next issue of the ASA's Newsletter (freely available at https://aesthetics-online.org/page/newsletters) (Margolis was a past president of the ASA, and a stalwart of the eastern division's meeting, which he attended every year). I should note, however, that the next issue will not be published until (early) August.
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