This editorial is going to be relatively short for two reasons. First, apart from a book review and a review article, the whole issue is in fact taken up by contributions to a special issue on the topic of Kant and Global Poverty. The editors of the special issue—Corinna Mieth, Martin Sticker, and Garrath Williams—have written a helpful introduction to this collection that will be of interest, I promise, not just to Kant scholars and philosophers working on poverty, but to non-specialists as well. The editors have also summarized each contribution in some detail, so readers will know what to look for.

The second reason for keeping this short is that this editorial is my final and official farewell as associate editor of Ethical Theory and Moral Practice. It has been my honour and privilege to serve as a member of the editorial team for over six years. I look forward to joining the journal’s editorial board from now on. I am also glad that in line with tradition, going back to the journal’s beginnings, the team will continue to have additional Scandinavian representation in the person of my successor, Kasper Lippert-Rasmussen. As a leading scholar of both ethical theory and moral practice and as a highly productive and influential author, I believe he needs no introduction for almost anybody who is likely to be interested in our journal, and I cannot think of higher praise than that.

Further, given that this is my last chance, I will abuse my privileges to say two more things without much argument—two things my experience as associate editor has taught me to better appreciate, and two things which have come under some undue fire recently. So, first, it has become fashionable to criticize the peer-review system in the world of academe. And for sure, it is far from perfect! At the same time, it might still be the best thing we have considering the alternatives. At ETMP, we have certainly tried to make the most of the peer-review system working closely with the referees and trying to actively mediate between them and the authors with a view to assisting both parties to their mutual benefit throughout the whole process. I also want to report how enormously impressed I have been by the number of people—many of them already intolerably swamped or in precarious job situations—who agreed to work selflessly and tirelessly to evaluate and improve the quality of submissions to this journal. Apart from expressing my gratitude and admiration, I would like to claim that this commitment is not only of professional but also of moral value.

Second, circling back to the main topic of this journal issue, I have found in my work as associate editor that successful research in ethical theory and moral practice profits massively from engagement with the history of philosophy—in fact it seems to me to be inconceivable without it. I mention this because it is another “trending” fad right now, even in some prominent philosophical circles, to disparage the work of philosophers of the past as superseded in light of contemporary wisdom or irrelevant to our present concerns. Or somewhat less harshly, the assumption might be that we can develop up-to-date and sophisticated philosophical theories and understand problems of our time, normative or otherwise, without immersing ourselves in the history of philosophy and history of ideas and without a careful exegesis and hermeneutics of seminal texts. I promised no arguments, so let me just point to the contributions of the current special issue, forging a link between scrupulous Kant scholarship and the analysis of current political and economic crises, as ostensive disproofs of what is to my mind a misguided and self-undermining view.

In any case, I hope you will enjoy them as well as our review article and book review also included in this issue.

Thank you and see you around!

András Szigeti