The Theseans

In Greek myth, Theseus was an Athenian hero who sailed to Crete to slay the Minotaur, a half-man half-bull monster, who lived in the depths of an elaborate maze called the Labyrinth. King Minos of Crete had compelled the Athenians to send a regular tribute of young people to be fed to the Minotaur, but with guidance from Minos’ daughter Ariadne, Theseus navigated the maze and killed the beast.

The Theseans are a group of modern philosophers co-founded by Keith Frankish and Daniel Dennett in 2022. Theseans are fascinated by the maze of consciousness and determined to navigate it and slay the Phenotaur — the notion of qualia, to which many philosophical careers have been needlessly sacrificed. And, like Theseus, they have travelled to Crete in pursuit of this aim.

Theseans are anti-foundationalists, and they repair their ship (which resembles Neurath’s boat) while at sea.

Membership

To become a Thesean, you must meet the following two conditions:

1. Be committed to the rejection of qualia realism, and, hence, to illusionism or an allied position. (As a rough guide, if you think that philosophical zombies are not clearly conceivable and that Mary would gain no new knowledge on leaving her room, then you meet this requirement.)
2. Have either discussed consciousness in Crete or discussed consciousness in one-to-one zoom session with someone in Crete. Those who haven’t visited Crete in person should be committed to doing so if and when circumstances permit.

If you are broadly sympathetic to (1) but have reservations, you can become a Firm Friend of the Theseans and supply them with thread. Firm Friends must still meet condition (2).

Details of the Theseans’ activities will be posted on my blog. As you will have gathered, the group doesn’t take itself too seriously, though it is firmly committed to its philosophical project.

Contact me if you wish to join. Please attach a photo of yourself either (a) in Crete, (b) zooming with someone in Crete, or (c) with some Crete-related object (e.g., a Crete guidebook or a ball of thread).

The Theseans

Founding members

• Keith Frankish (Sheffield)
• Daniel Dennett (Tufts)

Members

• Sean Crawford (Manchester)
• Anastasia Christakou (Reading)
• Adrien Doerig (Osnabrück)
• Frank Jackson (ANU)
• François Kammerer (Bochum)
• Maria Kasmirli (Sheffield)
• Pete Mandik (William Paterson)
• Matthias Michel (New York)

Student and lay members

• Tarik LaCour (Texas A&M)*
• Skye Longworth (Sheffield)
• Indra Gesink
• Katarína Sklutová (Bratislava)*
• David Vanegas-Moreno (Antioquia)*

Firm Friends (and suppliers of thread)

• Tim Crane (CEU)
• Nicholas Humphrey (LSE)
• David Papineau (KCL)
• Stathis Psillos (Athens)

* virtual member, who has yet to visit Crete in person.

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