Dr Robert Lawrence Kuhn
Executive Producer
Closer To Truth, PBS
New York, United States
Biography
Dr. Robert Lawrence Kuhn is a public intellectual; he is the creator, writer, host and executive producer of Closer To Truth, the long-running PBS/public television series and leading global resource on Cosmos (cosmology/physics, philosophy of science), Life (philosophy of biology), Mind (consciousness, brain/mind, philosophy of mind), and Meaning (theism/atheism/agnosticism, global philosophy of religion, critical thinking). See the Closer To Truth web resource (www.closertotruth.com) and Closer To Truth YouTube channel (www.youtube.com/@CloserToTruthTV).
Kuhn comprehensive review article on consciousness – “A Landscape of Consciousness: Toward a Taxonomy of Explanations and Implications” – is published in Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology (August, 2024, pp. 28-169). In its review, IAI News says “Kuhn has written perhaps the most comprehensive article on the landscape of theories of consciousness in recent memory…. Gathering under the same roof most of the greatest contemporary thinkers of one of the greatest questions one can ever try to answer, Kuhn’s landscape enacts the quasi-extinct art of true scholarship…. When was the last time you read a piece cordially inviting philosophy, neuroscience, quantum physics, psychical research, theology, and religion to the same table?”
Kuhn has written or edited over 30 books, including The Mystery of Existence: Why is there Anything At All? (with John Leslie); Closer To Truth: Challenging Current Belief; Closer To Truth: Science, Meaning and the Future; The Library of Investment Banking; How China’s Leaders Think (featuring President Xi Jinping); The Man Who Changed China: The Life and Legacy of Jiang Zemin (China’s best-selling book in 2005 and in December 2022); and "The Origin and Significance of Zero: An Interdisciplinary Perspective” (with Peter Gobets)
An international corporate strategist and investment banker, Dr. Kuhn is a recipient of the China Reform Friendship Medal, China’s highest award for 10 foreigners who contributed to China’s reform and opening up over four decades; only five are living; Dr. Kuhn is one of two Americans. He is a frequent commentator in the international media (BBC, CNN, etc.) and Chinese media.
Dr. Kuhn is chairman of The Kuhn Foundation. He has a BA in Human Biology (Johns Hopkins), PhD in Anatomy/Brain Research (UCLA), and SM (MBA) in Management (MIT).
Biography
Robert Lawrence Kuhn is the creator, writer, host and executive producer of Closer To Truth, the PBS/public television series on cosmos, consciousness and meaning that presents leading scientists, philosophers and creative thinkers discussing fundamental questions (www.closertotruth.com). Closer To Truth's YouTube Channel running year stats: >20 million views, >185 million minutes watch time; >340,000 subscribers (60% outside U.S., including 11% UK, 6% India, 6% Canada.
With a doctorate in brain research and the author or editor of more than 30 books, Dr. Kuhn is a public intellectual who speaks and writes frequently. He is co-editor (with John Leslie) of The Mystery of Existence: Why is there Anything At All?—readings and commentary on the perennial question, “Why is there Something rather than Nothing?”—published by Wiley-Blackwell. Kuhn’s article "Science as Democratizer" (American Scientist) argues how the scientific way of thinking can influence global society; "Why This Universe: A Taxonomy of Possible Explanations" (Skeptic magazine) presents a universally exhaustive set of "ultimate reality generators"; and "Levels of Nothing," which describes different understandings of the nature of "Nothing."
He is a featured “Expert Voice” on Space.com (www.Space.com) (multimedia essays on "Forget Space-Time: Information May Create the Cosmos", "The Illusion of Time: What's Real?", "Is Our Universe a Fake?") and on LiveScience (www.livescience.com) (“The Singularity, Virtual Immortality and the Trouble with Consciousness”).
Kuhn's books include Closer To Truth: Challenging Current Belief; Closer To Truth: Science, Meaning and the Future; Dealmaker; Dow-Jones Irwin’s The Library of Investment Banking; Handbook for Creative and Innovative Managers; Frontiers in Creative and Innovative Management; New Directions in Creative and Innovative Management;and The Firm Bond: Linking Mission and Meaning in Business and Religion (with George Geis). Five of his books are translated into Chinese, including two editions of Closer To Truth. Kuhn is the author of The Man Who Changed China: The Life and Legacy of Jiang Zemin, the first biography of a living Chinese leader ever published in China and China’s best-selling book of 2005. He is the author of How China’s Leaders Think, featuring President Xi Jinping. Kuhn’s article "Does God Exist?", based on critical thinking, appeared in prominent publications in China.
Kuhn is an international corporate strategist, investment banker and expert on China. Since 1989, he has worked with China’s senior leaders and advised the Chinese government, and he advises multinational companies on their China strategies. He is a regular commentator on BBC (World News / World Service), CNN, Bloomberg, and China Central Television (CCTV), and a featured columnist in the South China Morning Post and China Daily.
Kuhn is chairman of The Kuhn Foundation, which disseminates knowledge and understanding in science and philosophy through Closer To Truth, the long-running (since 2000) public TV / PBS series that features leading scientists, philosophers, theologians and creative thinkers. Closer To Truth, which Dr. Kuhn created, writes and hosts, consists of >300 TV episodes and >4000 web videos and focuses on cosmos, consciousness, God: Cosmos (cosmology, fundamental physics, philosophy of cosmology and physics, emergence, science and religion), Consciousness (brain, mind, mind-body problem, free will, personal identity, alien intelligences, critical thinking), and Meaning (philosophy of religion, philosophical theology, critical thinking). New seasons are in production.including the Global Philosophy of Religion (with the University of Birmingham, led by Prof. Yujin Nagasawa), Philosophy of Biology, and Art Seeking Understanding. .
Dr. Kuhn received a A.B. (Phi Beta Kappa) in Human Biology from Johns Hopkins University, a master of science in management from the MIT Sloan School of Management, and a PhD in Anatomy / Brain Research from UCLA.
Honoraria Titles
Major Prizes
Religion, Philosophy & History Interests
Buddhism, Christianity-Catholicism, Christianity-Orthodoxy, Christianity-Protestantism, Confusianism, History of Religion, History of Science, Islam, Judaism, Naturalism, Philosophy of Mind, Philosophy of Religion, Taoism
Science & Technology Interests
Anthropology, Biology, Biotechnology, Cosmology, Evolution, Genetics, Human Origins, Information Technology, Mathematics, Neuroscience, Physics, Psychology
Website
Publications
How China’s Leaders Think: The Inside Story of China’s Reform and What It Means for the Future,
John Wiley and Sons 2009
http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-047082445X.html
Closer To Truth: Science, Meaning and the Future,
Praeger 2007
http://www.greenwood.com/catalog/C9389.aspx www.closertotruth.com
The Mystery of Existence: Why is there Anything At All?
Wiley-Blackwell 2013
Co-authors: John Leslie and Robert Lawrence Kuhn
The Man Who Changed China: The Life and Legacy of Jiang Zemin,
Ransom House / Crown Publishers 2005
Closer To Truth: Challenging Current Belief,
McGraw-Hill 2000
