Awards

• Commended for Translation Prize - Nonfiction, French-American Foundation 2024

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Thinking the present in, through, and against the image, Alain Badiou proposes and enacts a comedic philosophy attuned to now's urgent absurdities. It's a pleasure to move with the sharp curve and fissure of his thinking. Badiou's Seminars are a major event in and for contemporary philosophy. -- Fred Moten, author of <i>In the Break: The Aesthetics of the Black Radical Tradition</i> 'There are only bodies seized by languages, except there are also truths.' Philosophy is famously incapable of dealing with the present-except there is also Alain Badiou. Images of the Present Time is a pure joy to read, even as it confronts some of the saddest marvels of our commodified nonworld. A truly innovative affirmation of the materialist dialectic. -- Sianne Ngai, author of <i>Theory of the Gimmick: Aesthetic Judgment and Capitalist Form</i> Unlike sparkling wine, vivid thought never ceases to tickle our established notions and sensibilities, bringing forth new concepts while transforming the very concept of the 'new.' By conceiving of the present as a matter of creation rather than mere presence, Badiou engages us in a series of unexpected and truly fascinating, powerful reflections. -- Alenka Zupancic, author of <i>The Odd One In: On Comedy</i> Alain Badiou is the most important contemporary French philosopher and indeed one of the three or four most important philosophers in the world today. This book, ranging widely across philosophy and literature, with a fluency that only a writer and thinker as simultaneously nimble and erudite as Badiou can summon, represents Badiou the public intellectual at his passionate, engaging, lucid, witty, and provocative best: it is a bracing diagnosis of the obsessions that keep us attached to the way we live now, as well as a fascinating reflection on what it would mean to live truly, in a world not ruled by the insidiously captivating 'images of the present time.' -- Joseph Litvak, author of <i>The Un-Americans: Jews, the Blacklist, and Stoolpigeon Culture</i>

Alain Badiou is the most important contemporary French philosopher and indeed one of the three or four most important philosophers in the world today. This book, ranging widely across philosophy and literature, with a fluency that only a writer and thinker as simultaneously nimble and erudite as Badiou can summon, represents Badiou the public intellectual at his passionate, engaging, lucid, witty, and provocative best: it is a bracing diagnosis of the obsessions that keep us attached to the way we live now, as well as a fascinating reflection on what it would mean to live truly, in a world not ruled by the insidiously captivating 'images of the present time.' -- Joseph Litvak, author of <i>The Un-Americans: Jews, the Blacklist, and Stoolpigeon Culture</i>

Thinking the present in, through, and against the image, Alain Badiou proposes and enacts a comedic philosophy attuned to now's urgent absurdities. It's a pleasure to move with the sharp curve and fissure of his thinking. Badiou’s Seminars are a major event in and for contemporary philosophy. -- Fred Moten, author of <i>In the Break: The Aesthetics of the Black Radical Tradition</i> 'There are only bodies seized by languages, except there are also truths.' Philosophy is famously incapable of dealing with the present—except there is also Alain Badiou. Images of the Present Time is a pure joy to read, even as it confronts some of the saddest marvels of our commodified nonworld. A truly innovative affirmation of the materialist dialectic. -- Sianne Ngai, author of <i>Theory of the Gimmick: Aesthetic Judgment and Capitalist Form</i> Unlike sparkling wine, vivid thought never ceases to tickle our established notions and sensibilities, bringing forth new concepts while transforming the very concept of the 'new.' By conceiving of the present as a matter of creation rather than mere presence, Badiou engages us in a series of unexpected and truly fascinating, powerful reflections. -- Alenka Zupančič, author of <i>The Odd One In: On Comedy</i> Alain Badiou is the most important contemporary French philosopher and indeed one of the three or four most important philosophers in the world today. This book, ranging widely across philosophy and literature, with a fluency that only a writer and thinker as simultaneously nimble and erudite as Badiou can summon, represents Badiou the public intellectual at his passionate, engaging, lucid, witty, and provocative best: it is a bracing diagnosis of the obsessions that keep us attached to the way we live now, as well as a fascinating reflection on what it would mean to live truly, in a world not ruled by the insidiously captivating 'images of the present time.' -- Joseph Litvak, author of <i>The Un-Americans: Jews, the Blacklist, and Stoolpigeon Culture</i> Alain Badiou is undoubtedly among the greatest of living philosophers. * APN News *

Thinking the present in, through, and against the image, Alain Badiou proposes and enacts a comedic philosophy attuned to now's urgent absurdities. It's a pleasure to move with the sharp curve and fissure of his thinking. Badiou's Seminars are a major event in and for contemporary philosophy. -- Fred Moten, author of <i>In the Break: The Aesthetics of the Black Radical Tradition</i> Unlike sparkling wine, vivid thought never ceases to tickle our established notions and sensibilities, bringing forth new concepts while transforming the very concept of the 'new.' By conceiving of the present as a matter of creation rather than mere presence, Badiou engages us in a series of unexpected and truly fascinating, powerful reflections. -- Alenka Zupancic, author of <i>The Odd One In: On Comedy</i> Alain Badiou is the most important contemporary French philosopher and indeed one of the three or four most important philosophers in the world today. This book, ranging widely across philosophy and literature, with a fluency that only a writer and thinker as simultaneously nimble and erudite as Badiou can summon, represents Badiou the public intellectual at his passionate, engaging, lucid, witty, and provocative best: it is a bracing diagnosis of the obsessions that keep us attached to the way we live now, as well as a fascinating reflection on what it would mean to live truly, in a world not ruled by the insidiously captivating 'images of the present time.' -- Joseph Litvak, author of <i>The Un-Americans: Jews, the Blacklist, and Stoolpigeon Culture</i>

Author Information

Alain Badiou is emeritus professor of philosophy at the École normale supérieure in Paris. His seminars published by Columbia University Press include Lacan (2018) and Malebranche (2019). Kenneth Reinhard is research professor of comparative literature and English at the University of California, Los Angeles. Susan Spitzer is a frequent translator of Badiou’s works.

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