In contrast to science which Lawson sees as the pursuit of closure, art he proposes is centrally the pursuit of openness. It is for this reason that an attempt to define precisely the meaning of a poem, or novel, or a work of art is at once to undermine it. The pursuit of openness is not limited to art forms and is found in other aspects of human being such as elemental forms of spirituality or mysticism. As with the pursuit of closure, the pursuit of openness in the limit fails as elements of closure are introduced to give character to the experience.