Images of the Present Time
Published on 30. April 2024
Book
Paperback/Softback
472 pages
978-0-231-21669-2 (ISBN)
Description
Finalist, 2024 Translation Prize - Nonfiction, French-American Foundation
Alain Badiou began the twenty-first century by considering the relationship between philosophy and notions of "the present." In this period of his ongoing annual lecture series, the acclaimed philosopher took up the existential problem of how to be contemporary with one's own time-that is, how to not simply inhabit a passing moment but bring a real present into existence.
Images of the Present Time presents nearly three years of Badiou's seminars, held from 2001 to 2004, partly against the backdrop of the war in Iraq. Given while Badiou was writing Logics of Worlds, the second of the three volumes of Being and Event, these lectures address some of the same questions of existence in a particular world in a more personal and conversational tone, with reference to literature, philosophy, and contemporary politics and culture. He proposes a new concept of living in a real present as the twisting together of something from the past and something of the future.
Featuring some of the philosopher's most inspiring and approachable work, Images of the Present Time is an important book for all readers interested in the practical as well as conceptual possibilities of Badiou's thought.
Alain Badiou began the twenty-first century by considering the relationship between philosophy and notions of "the present." In this period of his ongoing annual lecture series, the acclaimed philosopher took up the existential problem of how to be contemporary with one's own time-that is, how to not simply inhabit a passing moment but bring a real present into existence.
Images of the Present Time presents nearly three years of Badiou's seminars, held from 2001 to 2004, partly against the backdrop of the war in Iraq. Given while Badiou was writing Logics of Worlds, the second of the three volumes of Being and Event, these lectures address some of the same questions of existence in a particular world in a more personal and conversational tone, with reference to literature, philosophy, and contemporary politics and culture. He proposes a new concept of living in a real present as the twisting together of something from the past and something of the future.
Featuring some of the philosopher's most inspiring and approachable work, Images of the Present Time is an important book for all readers interested in the practical as well as conceptual possibilities of Badiou's thought.
Reviews / Votes
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 undoubtedly among the greatest of living philosophers. * APN News *More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Dimensions
Height: 216 mm
Width: 140 mm
ISBN-13
978-0-231-21669-2 (9780231216692)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Alain Badiou
Images of the Present Time
E-Book
11/2022
1st Edition
Columbia University Press
€33.99
Available for download
Persons
Alain Badiou is emeritus professor of philosophy at the Ecole normale superieure 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.
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.
Content
Editors' Introduction to the English Edition of the Seminars of Alain Badiou
The Seminars of Alain Badiou (1983-2016): General Preface
Introduction to the Seminar Images of Present Time by Kenneth Reinhard
About the 2001-2004 Seminar
Year 1: Contemporary Nihilism
1. Session 1
2. Session 2
3. Session 3
4. Session 4
5. Session 5
6. Session 6
7. Session 7
Year 2: Logic of Exceptions
8. Session 1
9. Session 2
10. Session 3
11. Session 4
12. Session 5
13. Session 6
14. Session 7
15. Session 8
Year 3: What Does it Mean to Live?
16. Session 1
17. Session 2
18. Session 3
19. Session 4
20. Session 5
Notes
Index
The Seminars of Alain Badiou (1983-2016): General Preface
Introduction to the Seminar Images of Present Time by Kenneth Reinhard
About the 2001-2004 Seminar
Year 1: Contemporary Nihilism
1. Session 1
2. Session 2
3. Session 3
4. Session 4
5. Session 5
6. Session 6
7. Session 7
Year 2: Logic of Exceptions
8. Session 1
9. Session 2
10. Session 3
11. Session 4
12. Session 5
13. Session 6
14. Session 7
15. Session 8
Year 3: What Does it Mean to Live?
16. Session 1
17. Session 2
18. Session 3
19. Session 4
20. Session 5
Notes
Index