•  6
    Whittaker’s analytical dynamics: a biography
    Archive for History of Exact Sciences 68 (3): 355-407. 2014.
    Originally published in 1904, Whittaker’s A Treatise on the Analytical Dynamics of Particles and Rigid Bodies soon became a classic of the subject and has remained in print for most of these 108 years. In this paper, we follow the book as it develops from a report that Whittaker wrote for the British Society for the Advancement of Science to its influence on Dirac’s version of quantum mechanics in the 1920s and beyond.
  •  3
    Quotient Rings of Noncommutative Rings in the First Half of the 20th Century
    Archive for History of Exact Sciences 58 (3): 255-281. 2004.
    Abstract.A keystone of the theory of noncommutative noetherian rings is the theorem that establishes a necessary and sufficient condition for a given ring to have a quotient ring. We trace the development of this theorem, and its applications, from its first version for noncommutative domains in the 1930s to Goldie’s theorems in the late 1950s.
  •  1
    A lost chapter in the pre-history of algebraic analysis: Whittaker on contact transformations
    Archive for History of Exact Sciences 64 (6): 665-706. 2010.
    In the early 1930s W. O. Kermack and W. H. McCrea published three papers in which they attempted to prove a result of E. T. Whittaker on the solution of differential equations. In modern parlance, their key idea consisted in using quantized contact transformations over an algebra of differential operators. Although their papers do not seem to have had any impact, either then or at any later time, the same ideas were independently developed in the 1960–1980s in the framework of the theory of modu…Read more
  •  1
  •  19
    Global Ethics or Universal Ethics?
    with Kok-Chor Tan, Zachary Penman, Saranindranath Tagore, and Inés Valdez
    Journal of World Philosophies 6 (1): 99-138. 2021.
    Kok-Chor Tan argues that cosmopolitan liberalism can serve as a means to implement the ideal of moral universalism, if one sufficiently distinguishes non-toleration from intervention and moral universalism from dogmatism. In a further move, Tan claims that such an understanding of cosmopolitan liberalism can work to mutually regulate the behavior of states in the global arena. Tan’s co-panelists engage different aspects of his vision. Steve Coutinho underscores that changes within cultures do no…Read more
  •  11
    Name and Actuality in Early Chinese Thought
    Philosophy East and West 45 (4): 593-596. 1995.
  •  109
    An anthology of new translations of essential readings from the classical texts of early Chinese philosophy. It includes the Analects of Confucius, Meng Zi (Mencius), Xun Zi, Mo Zi, Lao Zi (Dao De Jing), Zhuang Zi, and Han Fei Zi, as well as short chapters on the Da Xue and the Zhong Yong. Pedagogically organized, it offers philosophically sophisticated annotations and commentaries as well as an extensive glossary explaining key philosophical concepts in detail.
  •  36
    A Companion to Angus C. Graham's Chuang Tzu: The Inner Chapters (review) (review)
    Philosophy East and West 55 (1): 126-130. 2005.
    In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Reviewed by:A Companion to Angus C. Graham's Chuang Tzu: The Inner ChaptersSteve CoutinhoA Companion to Angus C. Graham's Chuang Tzu: The Inner Chapters. By Harold D. Roth. Monographs of the Society for Asian and Comparative Philosophy, 20. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2003. Pp. 243. Paper $18.00.Scholars of Chuang Tzu—and "children of Angus"—will enthusiastically welcome Harold Roth's A Companion to Angus C Graham's Chuang…Read more
  •  11
    Drawing on several issues and methods in Western philosophy, from analytical philosophy to semiotics and hermeneutics, the author throws new light on the ancient Zhuangzi text. Engaging Daoism and contemporary Western philosophical logic, and drawing on new developments in our understanding of early Chinese culture, Coutinho challenges the interpretation of Zhuangzi as either a skeptic or a relativist, and instead seeks to explore his philosophy as emphasizing the ineradicable vagueness of lang…Read more
  • This dissertation explores the conception of boundaries in early Daoist philosophy, and specifically in the Zhuangzi. I use as interpretive devices the western linguistic concepts of vagueness, open texture , and family resemblance, together with several western interpretive methodologies, to explore the significance of drawing boundaries and making distinctions---both linguistic and ontological. By contrasting the Daoist attitude that respects indeterminacy with the bivalent logical system of t…Read more
  •  31
    An Introduction to Daoist Philosophies
    Columbia University Press. 2013.
    Coutinho respects the multiplicity of Daoist philosophies while also revealing a distinctive philosophical sensibility, and he provides clear explanations of these complex texts without resorting to oversimplification.
  •  12
    Zhuangzi
    Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 2004.
  •  3
    Liezi
    Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 2008.
  •  471
    The abduction of vagueness: Interpreting the
    Philosophy East and West 52 (4): 409-425. 2002.
    : The role of vagueness in the Laozi is explored by investigating its connection with "process." First, a hermeneutic methodology is developed and adopted, derived from Peirce's notion of "abduction." Second, this notion is analyzed, and several distinctive characteristics, or "traces," of vagueness are identified. Third, evidence of these traces in the text of the Laozi is collected, with comments on their significance in the Daoist context
  •  49
    Wandering Beyond the Bounds: Nomadism, Health, and Self-Undermining
    with Geir Siguresson
    Journal of Nietzsche Studies 28 (1): 70-88. 2004.