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"All things feel," Pythagoas said. Panpsychism, the belief that consciousnes is a property of all things and not limited to the human brain, is back in vogue -- with good reason. The problem of how inert matter could give rise to subjectivity and feeling has proved insoluble under the dominant assumptions of a hard materialism. Recently, the American filmmaker Errol Morris presented his own brand of panpsychism in a long-form essay entitled, "The Pianist and the Lobster," published in the New York Times. The essay opens with an episode from the life of Sviatoslav Richter, namely a time where the famous Russian pianist couldn't perform without a plastic lobster waiting for him in the wings. In Morris's piece, the curious anecdote sounds the first note of what turns out to be a polyphony of thoughts and ideas on consciousness, agency, Nerval's image of the the "Hidden God," and the deep weirdness of music. Phil and JF use Morris's essay to create a polyphony of their own.

REFERENCES

Errol Morris, "The Pianist and the Lobster"

Sviatoslav Richter, Russian pianist
\nNick Cave., Red Hand Files #53
\nThomas Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
\nBruno Monsaingeon (dir.), Richter: The Enigma
\nBon Jovi, "Livin\u2019 on a Prayer"
\nBrad Warner, "The Eyes of Dogen"
\nGilles Deleuze, Difference and Repetition
\n Edgard Var\xe8se, composer
\nBenjamin Libet, neuroscientist
\nRobin Hardy (dir), The Wicker Man
\nFrans De Waal, Mama\u2019s Last Hug
\nGilles Deleuze and F\xe9lix Guattari, A Thousand Plateaus
\nSartre, The Transcendence of the Ego
\nTarot de Marseille - XVIII: The Moon
\nMarsilio Ficino, Three Books on Life
\nCarl Jung, "On the Relation of Analytical Psychology to Poetry", The Red Book
\nTerence McKenna, Food of the Gods