Steve Coutinho

I am currently Chair of the Department of Philosophy at Muhlenberg College, and specialize in Chinese and Comparative philosophy. I did my B.A. in analytical philosophy, and an M.Phil in phenomenology, at University College London. I did my Ph.D. in Chinese and Comparative philosophy at the University of Hawai’i. Over the course of my career, I have been increasingly drawn to engaging with the philosophical ideas expressed in early ‘Daoist’ texts: What does it mean to be human? What should our relationship be to the natural world if we are to live wise and flourishing lives attuned to the dao of the Cosmos? I am also interested in languages, linguistics, especially issues of linguistic difference, and problems regarding the methodology of comparative philosophy. I practice taiji and qigong; I love dogs and chocolate, and I take the dao of music and piano practice very seriously.