Heraclitus' dictum panta rei also applies to editorial boards of philosophy journals: they gradually change over time. But sometimes it is difficult to face this reality, especially when long-term members and friends decide to step down. Joel Anderson has been with the journal for more than 10 years. He has been an inspiring associate editor and a central figure in the board, always full of new ideas and good judgment. He also contributed very much to realizing one of the main aims of Philosophical Explorations: to connect analytic and continental philosophy. Melissa van Amerongen has been our editorial assistant for the last six years. With her personal style, humor and commitment she has been the professional force that ensured that manuscript handling at this journal was as smooth as it could be. It is a testimony of her charm that, despite her job involving distributing manuscripts to overloaded associate editors and reminding them of overdue reports, she remained tremendously popular with all in the editorial board. Finally, Ralf Stoecker decided to step down as associate editor after a relative short period of three years because of new important responsibilities and interests. Philosophical Explorations owes a lot to all three and as editor I am extremely grateful to them for their contributions. Melissa will be replaced by Fleur Jongepier, who has been involved in the journal for a year and will take over full responsibilities as editorial assistant from now on.
Philosophical Explorations Essay Prize 2013
Philosophers in the early stages of their career and working in the philosophy of mind and action were invited last year to submit their best papers to participate in the annual competition for the Philosophical Explorations Essay Prize. The essays were first evaluated by the Editorial Board. A selection was subsequently sent to a jury consisting of Fred Dretske (Duke University), Uriah Kriegel (Institut Jean Nicod, Paris) and David Velleman (New York University). The jury chose the following essay as the winner of the Philosophical Explorations Essay Prize 2013:
“The Relations between Agency, Identification and Alienation”
By Alec James Hinshelwood
University College London
United Kingdom
The jury's verdict on the winning essay was as follows:
This is a sensitive and extremely well-written attempt to show how a Moranian alternative to Frankfurt/Bratman style hierarchical theories of ownership and alienation might presuppose a denial of the event-causal account of agency. The treatment of Frankfurt and Bratman is careful and clear and the diagnosis of the source of the constraints on their views extremely plausible. If right, it is also potentially a very important paper, since it offers a kind of in-principle objection to hierarchical style accounts of a type different from those that have gone before – and potentially more robust.
On behalf of the Editorial Board I would like to congratulate Alec Hinshelwood on his success. His winning essay is the opening article of the current issue of Philosophical Explorations.
The Essay Prize brings with it significant visibility. The winners of the Essay Prize 2011 and 2012 are in the top three of the most downloaded articles of Philosophical Explorations between 2011 and 2013. They had 800–1000 full downloads each.
The Editorial Board is also very grateful for the work that has been done by the jury. Recently we received the sad news that one of its members, Fred Dretske, passed away on July 24, 2013. He will be remembered as a great philosopher in the field of epistemology and the philosophy of mind, one of the focal points of this journal.