Hilary Lawson

Lawson graduated from Balliol College, Oxford with a first in PPE.[9] As a post-graduate he began a DPhil on the problems of self-reference.[10] This later became his book Reflexivity: The Post-Modern Predicament (1985) [11][12][13] as part of the series Problems of Modern European Thought in which he argued that self-referential paradoxes are central to twentieth century philosophy, and specifically post-modernism.[14][15]

Later, Lawson pursued a broadcasting career. As a writer and director he made documentaries,[16] created the series Where There's Life[17][18] and co-authored a book based on the series.[19] At 28, he was appointed Editor of Programmes at TV-am.[20][21][22] In the late 1980s he founded the production company TVF Media[23] which made documentary and current affairs programming, including Channel 4's international current affairs programme, The World This Week.[24][25] Lawson was Editor of the programme which ran weekly between 1987 and 1991.[26]

His book Closure was published in 2001.[27] The book has been described as the first non-realist metaphysics.[28][29]

Lawson founded the Institute of Art and Ideas in 2008 with the aim of making ideas and philosophy a central part of cultural life.[30][31][32][33]

Lawson, at the outset of his career was influenced by postmodernism, and as such he contributed to and co-edited the collection of essays: Dismantling Truth: Reality in the Post-Modern World.[34][35][36] He also published the pamphlet After Truth - A Post Modern Manifesto, written in collaboration with Hugh Tomlinson, the translator of Deleuze.[37] The influence of a postmodern approach continued in his collaborations with the American philosopher Richard Rorty, who contributed to Lawson's BBC film Science...Fiction?[38] in which Lawson argued that "science is not powerful because it is true, but true because it is powerful"[39] and in Lawson's subsequent film on Plato entitled The First World. Rorty also contributed to Lawson's collection Dismantling Truth. [40]

Lawson is a long-standing critic of philosophical realism [41][42][43] apparent in the last decade from his exchange of articles with Timothy Williamson[44][45][46] and debates with analytic philosophers John Searle,[47] Simon Blackburn,[48][49] and others.[50][51][52][53] Lawson is however also a critic of postmodernism, arguing that postmodernism is made incoherent by the paradoxes of self-reference.[54][55][56]

Rejecting realism and postmodernism, Lawson's theory "closure" instead proposes that the world is open and, along with other living organisms, we make sense of the world through the process of closure.[57][58] Closure is defined as 'holding that which is different as one and the same'.[59] The theory shifts the focus of philosophy away from language and towards an exploration of the relationship between openness and closure.[60][61][62][63] Given Lawson's earlier work on self-reference, an important element of the theory of closure is its own self-referential character.[64]

The framework of closure enables Lawson to claim that he provides an account of the relationship between language and the world that does not rely on reference and which he argues overcomes the problem of how language is hooked onto the world that beset twentieth century philosophy.[65][66] One of the consequences of the theory is that philosophical oppositions, between language and the world, fact and value, are no longer regarded as oppositions. Science is not in opposition to art and religion but in a different relationship to openness and closure.[67][68][69][70] Lawson proposes that science is 'driven by the search for closure’. Art in contrast is described as 'the pursuit of openness and the avoidance of closure'.[71]

In Reflexivity, Lawson argued that self-reference was central to contemporary philosophy.[72][73] Using Nietzsche, Heidegger and Derrida as the main examples, he sought to show that reflexivity was the primary motor of their work.[74][75] It was implicit that similar arguments could be applied to Wittgenstein and the analytic tradition.[76][77][78]

The introduction to Closure, referred to as the Prologue, extends the arguments put forward in Reflexivity to the broader philosophical tradition.[79] It argues that issues of self-reference undermine currently available philosophical positions. The main body of the book describes the process of closure and the means by which we can intervene in the world and seemingly understand it.[80][81][82] In doing so it seeks to demonstrate that meaning and understanding are not dependent on notions of reference and truth, arguing that although there is nothing in common between closure and openness this does not limit our ability to intervene successfully in the world.[83][84][85][86][87] Other books include Dismantling Truth: Science in Post-Modern Times.[88] Articles include After Truth,[89] On Integrity,[90] Philosophy As,[91][92][93] and The Poetic Strategy.[94]

Lawson created his first video paintings in 2001.[95][96][97] He went on to found the Artscape Project in 2003, which brought a collective of artists together to develop the medium.[98][99][100][101]

His video painting work has been exhibited at: the Hayward Gallery (2006); sketch (restaurant) (2007),[102] the ICA (2007), and The Globe at Hay gallery (2008).[103][104][105][106] Now Revisited, performed at Shunt, London in 2009, was a video painting installation in five acts in which the audience found themselves the subject of the work.[107][108]

The (British Film Institute) lists more than 200 credits as producer, director, writer or presenter.[109] Lawson's documentary films include: Your Own Worst Enemy, writer and producer, (ITV); Science … fiction?, written and directed (BBC);[110][111] Broken Images, written and directed (BBC);[112][113][114] The First World, written and directed (Channel 4);[115] The Man, the Myth, and The Maker, produced and presented (Channel 4); Incredible Evidence (90mins),[116] written and directed (Channel 4). His current affairs output includes: The World This Week (1hr, weekly 1988-93), Editor (Channel 4); Cooking the Books, written and directed (Channel 4);[117] Patent on Life, written and directed (Channel 4); For Queen or Country, written and directed (Channel 4).[118]

• The Emily Award, American Film and Video Festival, ‘The First World’, 1991[119]
• Educational Award, Royal Television Society, Nomination, ‘Write Away! Beginnings, Middles and Endings’, 2000[120]
• Children’s | Schools Factual - Primary Award, British Academy Award, Nomination, ‘Just Write: Stand Up Poetry’, 2000-1[121]

• http://www.iai.tv/
• http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/theforum/vicechair/