Tallis attacked post-structuralism in books such as "Not Saussure" and "Theorrhoea and After", and he contested assumptions of artificial intelligence research in his book "Why the Mind is Not a Computer: A Pocket Dictionary on Neuromythology". He denies that our appreciation of art and music can be reduced to scientific terms. His philosophical writings attempt to supply an anthropology account of what is distinctive about human beings. To this end he has written a trilogy of books entitled "The Hand"; "I Am: A Philosophical Inquiry into First-Person Being"; and "The Knowing Animal". He has also argued extensively about the perceived misuse of scientific language and concepts to explain human experiences.