Surfing with Sartre

Surfing with Sartre
Author: Aaron James
Publsiher: Anchor
Total Pages: 354
Release: 2018-05-01
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9781101970157

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Jean-Paul Sartre once declared waterskiing to be “the ideal limit of aquatic sports.” Aaron James, who is both an avid surfer and a professor of philosophy, vigorously disagrees. In these pages, he presents his surfer’s worldview as a foil to Sartre’s, along the way elucidating such philosophical categories as freedom, being, phenomenology, morality, epistemology, and even the emerging values of what he terms “leisure capitalism.” In developing his unique surfer’s philosophy, he draws from surf culture and lingo—and engages with philosophers from Aristotle to Wittgenstein. In the process, he speaks to those of us in search of personal and social meaning—particularly in our current anxious moment—by way of real, authentic philosophy. In or out of the water.

Surfing with Sartre

Surfing with Sartre
Author: Aaron James
Publsiher: Anchor
Total Pages: 352
Release: 2017-08-08
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9780385540742

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From the bestselling author of Assholes: A Theory, a book that—in the tradition of Shopclass as Soulcraft, Barbarian Days and Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance—uses the experience and the ethos of surfing to explore key concepts in philosophy. The existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre once declared "the ideal limit of aquatic sports . . . is waterskiing." The avid surfer and lavishly credentialed academic philosopher Aaron James vigorously disagrees, and in Surfing with Sartre he intends to expound the thinking surfer's view of the matter, in the process elucidating such philosophical categories as freedom, being, phenomenology, morality, epistemology, and even the emerging values of what he terms "leisure capitalism." In developing his unique surfer-philosophical worldview, he draws from his own experience of surfing and from surf culture and lingo, and includes many relevant details from the lives of the philosophers, from Aristotle to Wittgenstein, with whose thought he engages. In the process, he'll speak to readers in search of personal and social meaning in our current anxious moment, by way of doing real, authentic philosophy.

Assholes

Assholes
Author: Aaron James
Publsiher: Hachette UK
Total Pages: 174
Release: 2012-11-01
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9781857889567

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What is it for someone to be an asshole? Although most of us are forced to deal with such people every day, few of us could easily say exactly what an asshole is. And as prevalent as they are, no one has offered a sustained analytical treatment of the subject. Assholes are arguably part of the human social condition, so the topic is perhaps the special provenance of philosophers. In fact, Rousseau, Kant, Hegel and Sartre have all grappled with asshole-related questions of moral status. In the spirit of the bestselling On Bullshit, philosopher Aaron James tackles the subject of assholes in a philosophical – yet also humorous, entertaining and accessible – inquiry into what makes a person an asshole. The book also explores different asshole types, the roles gender, nurture, and nature play, and how best to deal with assholes in daily life. A pop-philosophy book with great potential to crossover into the gift book and humor genres, this will

Surf Sweat and Tears

Surf  Sweat and Tears
Author: Andy Martin
Publsiher: OR Books
Total Pages: 232
Release: 2020-03
Genre: True Crime
ISBN: 9781682192337

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“I don’t normally read books about surfers, but this is like Truman Capote, with shorts.” —Lee Child “Andy Martin, to his immense credit, knows that surfers are misfits and accidental comics, as well as great athletes.” —Matt Warshaw “A sublime mixing of stoke and sorrow, hedonism and the macabre—skillfully and deftly penned by someone who had, and still has, intimate access to many of the key players." —Tom Anderson, author of Riding the Magic Carpet: A Surfer's Odyssey to Find the Perfect Wave This is the true story of Ted, Viscount Deerhurst, the son of the Earl of Coventry and an American ballerina who dedicated his life to becoming a professional surfer. Surfing was a means of escape, from England, from the fraught charges of nobility, from family, and, often, from his own demons. Ted was good on the board, but never made it to the very highest ranks of a sport that, like most, treats second-best as nowhere at all. He kept on surfing, ending up where all surfers go to live or die, the paradise of Hawaii. There, in search of the “perfect woman,” he fell in love with a dancer called Lola, who worked in a Honolulu nightclub. The problem with paradise, as he was soon to discover, is that gangsters always get there first. Lola already had a serious boyfriend, a man who went by the name of Pit Bull. Ted was given fair warning to stay away. But he had a besetting sin, for which he paid the heaviest price: He never knew when to give up. Surf, Sweat and Tears takes us into the world of global surfing, revealing a dark side beneath the dazzling sun and cream-crested waves. Here is surf noir at its most compelling, a dystopian tale of one man’s obsessions, wiped out in a grisly true crime.

Assholes A Theory of Donald Trump

Assholes  A Theory of Donald Trump
Author: Aaron James
Publsiher: Doubleday
Total Pages: 144
Release: 2016-05-03
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9780385542043

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Make America Great Again? Donald Trump is an asshole is a fact widely agreed upon—even by his supporters, who actually like that about him. But his startling political rise makes the question of just what sort of asshole he is, and how his assholedom may help to explain his success, one not just of philosophical interest but of almost existential urgency. Enter the philosopher Aaron James, author of the foundational text in the burgeoning field of Asshole Studies: the bestselling Assholes: A Theory. In this brisk and trenchant inquiry into the phenomenon that is Donald Trump, James places the man firmly in the typology of the asshole (takes every advantage, entrenched sense of entitlement, immune to criticism); considers whether, in the Hobbesian world we seem to inhabit, he might not somehow be a force for good—i.e., the Stronger Asshole; and offers a suggestion for how the bonds of our social contract, spectacularly broken by Trump’s (and Ted Cruz’s) disdain for democratic civility, might in time be repaired. You will never think about Donald Trump and his Art of the Deal the same way after reading this book. And, like it or not, think about him we must.

It s Great to Suck at Something

It s Great to Suck at Something
Author: Karen Rinaldi
Publsiher: Atria Books
Total Pages: 256
Release: 2019-05-07
Genre: Self-Help
ISBN: 9781501195761

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Discover how the freedom of sucking at something can help you build resilience, embrace imperfection, and find joy in the pursuit rather than the goal. What if the secret to resilience and joy is the one thing we’ve been taught to avoid? When was the last time you tried something new? Something that won’t make you more productive, make you more money, or check anything off your to-do list? Something you’re really, really bad at, but that brought you joy? Odds are, not recently. As a sh*tty surfer and all-around-imperfect human Karen Rinaldi explains in this eye-opening book, we live in a time of aspirational psychoses. We humblebrag about how hard we work and we prioritize productivity over play. Even kids don’t play for the sake of playing anymore: they’re building blocks to build the ideal college application. But we’re all being had. We’re told to be the best or nothing at all. We’re trapped in an epic and farcical quest for perfection. We judge others on stuff we can’t even begin to master, and it’s all making us more anxious and depressed than ever. Worse, we’re not improving on what really matters. This book provides the antidote. (It’s Great to) Suck at Something reveals that the key to a richer, more fulfilling life is finding something to suck at. Drawing on her personal experience sucking at surfing (a sport she’s dedicated nearly two decades of her life to doing without ever coming close to getting good at it) along with philosophy, literature, and the latest science, Rinaldi explores sucking as a lost art we must reclaim for our health and our sanity and helps us find the way to our own riotous suck-ability. She draws from sources as diverse as Anthony Bourdain and surfing luminary Jaimal Yogis, Thich Nhat Hanh, and Jean-Paul Sartre, among many others, and explains the marvelous things that happen to our mammalian brains when we try something new, all to discover what she’s learned firsthand: it is great to suck at something. Sucking at something rewires our brain in positive ways, helps us cultivate grit, and inspires us to find joy in the process, without obsessing about the destination. Ultimately, it gives you freedom: the freedom to suck without caring is revelatory. Coupling honest, hilarious storytelling with unexpected insights, (It’s Great to) Suck at Something is an invitation to embrace our shortcomings as the very best of who we are and to open ourselves up to adventure, where we may not find what we thought we were looking for, but something way more important.

Search for a Method

Search for a Method
Author: Jean-Paul Sartre
Publsiher: Vintage
Total Pages: 230
Release: 1968-08-12
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9780394704647

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From one of the 20th century’s most profound philosophers and writers, comes a thought provoking essay that seeks to reconcile Marxism with existentialism. Exploring the complicated relationship the two philosophical schools of thought have with one another, Sartre supposes that the two are in fact compatible and complimentary towards one another, with poignant analysis and reasoning. An important work of modern philosophy, Search for a Method has a major influence on the current perceptions of existentialism and Marxism. “This is the most important philosophical work by Sartre to be translated since Being and Nothingness.”—James Collings, America

Money From Nothing

Money From Nothing
Author: Robert Hockett,Aaron James
Publsiher: Melville House
Total Pages: 336
Release: 2020-09-15
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9781612198576

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A major work of financial theory and practice with immediate relevance to the rebuilding of the economy, and restoring the promise of equality When the government decides to spend money, it simply creates the necessary funds for itself--as if out of thin air. That's how we pay for interstate highways, post offices, wars, social services, and economic stimulus packages. If it's that easy to make money . . . can't we all get more of it? Absolutely. And we should. So argue financial regulation expert Robert Hockett and bestselling philosopher Aaron James in this eye-opening, irreverent, and inspiring exploration of what the dollar really is. And better still, they show how we can build an economy that works for everybody without unwanted taxes and added regulations. In the process, we learn how disingenuous the political rhetoric surrounding inflation can be, how the demonized concept of the deficit is really just another way of tallying our collective national wealth, and how a strong central bank could free us from the abuses of private banking. With broad historical background and ambitious yet practical institutional proposals, Hockett and James offer a new vision of public finance--people's banking for a people's economy. Armed with this new outlook, we can even stop worrying debt and learn to love a strong, accountable, and transparent Federal Reserve as a cornerstone of our democracy.