Aaron James, UC Irvine philosophy professor,  avid barrel rider, and author of the book Surfing with Sartre: An Aquatic Inquiry into a Life of Meaning , will explore how finely "attuned" surfing just might improve social, economic, and ecological conditions on our planet. James draws  from his own experience of surfing, surf culture and language and juxtaposes it with Jean-Paul Sartre's ideas about radical self-determinism and relevant details from the lives of the philosophers, from Aristotle to Wittgenstein.  Whether you surf or not, it should be a fun discussion, so we hope you come along for the ride.

About the Author

Aaron James holds a PhD from Harvard and is professor of philosophy at the University of California, Irvine. He is the author of Assholes: A Theory, Assholes: A Theory of Donald Trump, and Fairness in Practice: A Social Contract for a Global Economy and numerous academic articles. He was awarded a Burkhardt Fellowship from the American Council of Learned Societies, and spent the 2009-10 academic year at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University. He’s a skilled, lifelong surfer and lives in Irvine, California.