Joseph attended Allhallows School in Honiton (1877–80) and then Winchester College as a scholar (1880–86; he went on to win three gold medals there and was a prefect).
In 1886 he went up to New College, Oxford, as a scholar and obtained a first-class in Classical Moderations (Greek and Latin) in 1888 and in Literae Humaniores (philosophy and ancient history) in 1890.
His first book was An Introduction to Logic (1906; 2nd edition, 1916), and this was followed by The Labour Theory of Value in Karl Marx (1923) and Some Problems in Ethics (1931); in 1930, he was elected a Fellow of the British Academy (FBA).
[4] In retirement, Joseph continued to teach at New College and also served as a member of Oxford City Council and Chairman of its Education Committee.
But his doubts concerning the independent reality of space and the nature of solidity and magnitude caused a gradual return to a position similar to the idealism which had prevailed in Oxford during his undergraduate days.