Surfing with Sartre

June 26, 2017
In this thoughtful meditation on surfing and philosophy, James (Assholes) explores epistemology, metaphysics, and ethics. He believes that a surfer knows the world simply by being “adaptively attuned” to it, and that this knowledge allows the surfer to be carried along purposefully by “propulsive forces.” James likens the surfing lineup—where surfers wait their turn to catch waves—to democratic egalitarianism in that it allows a fair distribution of waves among capable surfers; thus, surfing culture creates its own political and ethical systems. Surfing teaches us that transcendence occurs, James observes, when we are attuned to the deep ways that we’re connected. Throughout, James encourages readers to embrace surfer wisdom in order to achieve personal acceptance in the world: “Accept. Persist. Focus. Leave time. Don’t compare. And mix things up.” Even for nonsurfers, James convincingly illustrates the ways in which catching a wave can change how people understand the world and try to make meaning from experiences.

June 1, 2017
I surf, therefore I am: a good-natured exploration of some of the big questions philosophy raises, all while hanging 10.In this nimble set of essays on topics such as work and freedom, James (Philosophy/Univ. of California, Irving; Assholes: A Theory of Donald Trump, 2016, etc.) gives a fine if idiosyncratic account of how philosophers puzzle out the world--idiosyncratic because it's framed from the point of view of a surfer. Now, existentialism is one thing, existential threat quite another. One of the biggest questions facing any thinking person is how to deal with climate change, on which James consults a South African fellow wave-rider, who offers one approach to the problem, saying, "Bru, don't stress." That's all well and good, but of course it's not the end of the question, and James allows that maybe some stress may be necessary and that contingency suggests that "the surfer can contribute by not working and going surfing instead," checking out of the industrial/capitalist system that is doing so much damage. But more: as the author writes elsewhere, surfing evokes the better angels, teaching its practitioners to cultivate "the highest expression of human perceptual capacity, the human's way of at once being and doing." When you start talking being and doing, then you're in Sartrian territory, and though it's hard to imagine the diminutive French philosopher riding the big waves, it's not hard to see his influence on James' declaration that "surfing is freedom"--even if Sartre would qualify the statement by insisting that freedom is something more than simply not "working a crap job (here defined as a job that consistently requires missing good waves)." Throughout, the book is provocative and less laid-back than it might appear at first glance. A 12-page glossary defines some surfing and philosophy terms alike. Heidegger as ho-daddy? The approach is unusual, but to fruitful--and entertaining--ends.

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July 1, 2017
Socrates hanging 10 off Malibu? Surprisingly, Jamesa Harvard-educated philosopherfinds in surfing an ideal entry point into issues Socrates once explored in the Athens agora. But the idea of connecting those issues with a water sport comes from Sartre, who looked to the water-skier as the embodiment of existential freedom. The French thinker would have seen more clearlyJames avershad he focused on the surfer instead. As readers join in a series of intellectually bracing tube rides, they learn how surfing instructs us in a human freedom of harmonious attunement with the world's uncontrollable flow, a freedom quite different from Sartre's water-skier freedom of absurdist self-creation. But readers learn about more than freedom and engage thinkers beyond Sartre while riding a surfboard: surfer wisdom exposes the Hume-Kant clash over reason versus emotion as a false dichotomy; reveals that Rousseau understood society better than did Hobbes; and transcends Marx in describing a more humane and environmentally sane leisure capitalism. Philosophy stoked with the adrenaline rush of riding one gnarly wave.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)

March 15, 2017

Philosophy I adore, and though surfing is not in my skill set, the idea of having a University of California, Irvine, philosophy professor explain key concepts like freedom, being, and epistemology from a surfer's perspective is way too cool. (Existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre once said that "the ideal limit of aquatic sports...is waterskiing," which explains the title.) As with his popular Assholes: A Theory, James knows how to make us think deeply in a fun way. Best comparison: Eric Kaplan's Does Santa Exist? A Philosophical Investigation.

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