Alain Finkielkraut studied modern literature at the École normale supérieure de Saint-Cloud. Broadly speaking, his ideas may be described as being in the same vein as those of Emmanuel Levinas and Hannah Arendt, a filiation he has repeatedly pointed out.

Finkielkraut first came to public attention when he and Pascal Bruckner co-authored a number of short but controversial essays intended to question the idea that a new emancipation was underway; these included The New Love Disorder (1977) (Le Nouveau Désordre amoureux) and At The Corner Of The Street (1978) (Au Coin de la rue), as well as The Adventure (1979) (L'aventure).

Finkielkraut then began publishing singly-authored works on the public's betrayal of memory and our intransigence in the presence of events which, he argued, should move the public. This reflection led Finkielkraut to address post-Holocaust Jewish identity in Europe (The Imaginary Jew (1983) (le Juif imaginaire). Seeking to promote what he calls a duty of memory, Finkielkraut also published The Future Of A Negation: Reflexion On The Genocide Issue (1982) (Avenir d'une négation : réflexion sur la question du génocide) and later his comments on the Klaus Barbie trial, Remembering in Vain (La Mémoire vaine).

Finkielkraut feels particularly indebted to Emmanuel Levinas. In The Wisdom Of Love (La Sagesse de l'amour), Finkielkraut discusses this debt in terms of modernity and its mirages. Finkielkraut continues his reflection on the matter in The Defeat Of The Mind (1987) (La Défaite de la pensée), The Ingratitude: Talks About Our Times (1999) (Ingratitude : conversation sur notre temps).

In recent years, Alain Finkielkraut has given his opinion on a variety of topics regarding society, for instance the Internet in The Internet, The Troubling Ecstasy (2001) (Internet, l'inquiétante extase. In the book Present Imperfect (2002) (L'Imparfait du présent), akin to a personal diary, he expresses his thoughts about different events in the world (especially the events of September 11, 2001).

During the wars resulting from the breakup of Yugoslavia, he was one of the first to strongly condemn Serbian ethnic cleansing. However, he has been criticised for his close friendship with Croatian nationalist leader Franjo Tu?man, and was accused by David Bruce MacDonald of supporting "a nation whose leader was a Holocaust denier, at the helm of an authoritarian government."

His interview published in the Haaretz magazine in November 2005 in which he gave his opinion about the 2005 civil unrest in France stirred up much controversy. Finkielkraut's remarks that the French Soccer Team was "Black, Black, Black" (as opposed to the expression "Black, Blanc, Beur"...meaning "Black, White, Arab"...coined after the 1998 World Cup victory to honor the African and Afro Caribbean, European and North African origins of the players) were seen as "racially insensitive". When Finkielkraut cited popular culture organized along ethnic and religious lines as cause of the riots assigning the responsibility solely to the rioters, his critics alleged that his opinions on the matter were racist; Finkielkraut himself later said that he had been misquoted and misunderstood, but that his point had been that while many thought that the answer to racism was a multiracial society, a multiracial society could also become a "multiracist" society.

Subsequent to that controversy, he has issued other polemic statements. His thoughts about the current state of French society, which are severely critical of various phenomena (notably what he calls hostile immigration and a radical anti-racism), have earned him a good degree of respect among French conservative groups and intellectuals. His outlook has also attracted equally severe criticism from left-wing and anti-conservative groups, including newspapers such as Libération, Le Monde Diplomatique, Le Canard Enchaîné... Satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo's recurring contributor Charb, known for his harsh, libertarian (and bitter) views on society, once dubbed him le philosophe des Obscurités ("the philosopher of Darknesses").

Israeli filmaker Eyal Sivan took legal action against Finkielkraut in response to the accusation that Sivan “is, if you will, one of the actors in this particularly painful, particularly alarming reality, the Jewish anti-Semitism that rages today."