In 1967 Deutsch joined the University of Hawaii as Professor of Philosophy. He was the editor (from 1967 to 1987) of the international journal Philosophy East and West, Director of the Sixth Eastern Philosophers conference, as well as the past president of the Society for Asian and Comparative Philosophy. He was the Chair of the Department of Philosophy at the University of Hawaii and is currently retired.

Deutsch received his doctorate from Columbia University and has been a visiting professor at the University of Chicago and Harvard University. As well he has been a visiting Fellow and Life Member of the University of Cambridge. He has been an invited lecturer at numerous universities and colleges in Asia, Europe, and the Americas including Oxford, Lucknow University, Boston University, Fudan University (Shanghai), Madras University, the University of Rajasthan, Nanjing University, and the University of Chicago.

Professor Deutsch has been the recipient of Fellowships from the American Institute of Indian Studies, The American Council of Learned Societies and the National Endowment for the Humanities. He is also a past president of the Society for Asian and Comparative Philosophy.

• The Bhagavad Gita (translator), (Holt Rinehart & Winston, 1968)
• Advaita Vedanta: A Philosophical Reconstruction, (University of Hawaii Press, 1969)
• Studies in Comparative Aesthetics, University of Hawaii Press, 1975)
• On Truth: An Ontological Theory, University of Hawaii Press, 1979)
• Personhood, Creativity, and Freedom, (University of Hawaii Press, 1982)
• Interpreting Across Boundaries, (Motilal Banarsidass, 1989)
• Culture and Modernity: East-West Philosophic Perspectives, (University of Hawaii Press, 1991)
• A Companion to World Philosophies, (Wiley-Blackwell, 1991)
• Religion and Spirituality, (State University of New York Press, 1995)
• Essays on the Nature of Art, (State University of New York Press, 1996)
• Introduction to World Philosophies, (Prentice Hall, 1996)
• Classical Sociological Theory, (Blackwell Publishing Limited, 2002)
• Persons and Valuable Worlds: A Global Philosophy, (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2002)
• The Essential Vedanta: A New Source Book of Advaita Vedanta, (World Wisdom, 2004)
• Timeless in Time: Sri Ramana Maharshi, (World Wisdom, 2006)
• Introduction to Asian Philosophy, (Prentice Hall, 2006)
• The Japanese Arts and Self-Cultivation, (State University of New York Press, 2007)

In addition Deutsch has written over 100 articles and reviews for professional journals. His works have been translated into French, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Chinese, Korean, and Japanese.