Letter from the Editor

Dear Readers,

This issue marks the first to appear under the guidance of our Editorial Board. Indeed, the contents reflect the recommendations of numerous board members who responded to our request to identify researchers to provide "state of the art" articles defining the leading edge of various dimensions of Nietzsche scholarship. Of course, not everyone asked was able to respond to our invitation, and some of those who responded positively were unable to complete their work until a later date and so will appear in later issues. Our idea was to invite both recognized specialists in the area of Nietzsche studies and recognized specialists in broader areas of philosophy to critically examine Nietzsche's contributions and define some directions for future research. We think we found success in our first attempt to utilize this editorial approach, and we thank Professor Leiter for this suggestion.

In the articles that follow, specific issues in philosophical naturalism and epistemology are approached both broadly and in a focused way comparing Nietzsche and Hume (Kail and Welshon). Nietzsche's ontology is discussed at length, including its reception both in Western philosophy and among Asian philosophers striving to create "world philosophy" (Welshon and Schroeder). Partially at stake in such discussions are whether and the degree to which Nietzsche gets around the dead end he finds in Western metaphysics and how this bears on the values and possible modes of being that follow. Schroeder focuses on Nietzsche's grappling with nihilism in this context and the possibilities for self-overcoming that the Kyoto school in particular developed, partially in response to Nietzsche's own exploration of the same. The ethical and political implications of these ideas are also sketched and suggest interesting routes for further research. The scope of Nietzsche's possible contributions to ethics is then expanded in Robertson's survey of English-language scholarship during the past thirty years with specific focus on perfectionism, determinism, and motivation. The articles included here are interesting contributions in their own right while setting a research agenda for future contributions. We hope our readers will take the good suggestions offered here for future work.

The journal continues to seek submissions, and we are improving our review and communication processes. No one has been more instrumental in the latter than Rebecca Bamford, who has served as assistant editor for the past two years. Her leadership, creativity, and determination are responsible for creating manuscript tracking systems, arranging for timely review and response, and enhancing and developing the Web site in addition to providing helpful editorial guidance. As she wraps up her time at Hunter College, I want to acknowledge these outstanding contributions to the journal, which reflect just one way in which Professor Bamford has been a true asset to the Philosophy Department and college as a whole. I am also grateful to the Institute of Advanced Study at Durham University (U.K.) for providing the physical and intellectual space to continue working on the journal during my sabbatical while also finishing other projects.

I also wish to provide further information about the state of the journal and future plans. Thanks to the improved manuscript tracking practices, we are now able to make public our acceptance rate, which is 12.5 percent. This is out of a total of eighty-one submissions received during the past three years. One of the biggest editorial challenges we face right now is raising the number of quality submissions, and we are counting on our Editorial Board and readers to assist us in meeting this goal.

For years, I have been working with the publisher, Penn State University Press, and Project Muse to make more of the back issues of the journal available. Already, you may find the full set of tables of contents on the JNS Web site. We have plans to add abstracts soon. Just recently, Project Muse agreed to proceed with preparing searchable electronic versions of the back issues. We will keep readers posted as this develops. We have succeeded in restoring the indexing of the journal in the Philosopher's Index, which had lapsed and had been limited to just a...