The editor E D I T O R I A L
VOL1 á NR1 á 1998

This is the first issue of basileus, a non-profit electronic journal based at the University of Helsinki, Finland, published semiannually in March and in September, and dedicated to philosophical perspectives to law. For me, this enterprise is a venture in many senses of the word. As a researcher, I have been mostly disappointed with what the internet has had to offer. There are, of course, useful collections of links that facilitate the collection of everyday information, and digital life makes communication faster. But aside from these more or less technical assets, I am not altogether convinced about the digital medium's possibilities in scholarly work.

My personal experience has been that very few electronic publications are really worth while. Some, like Postmodern Culture, are often too infatuated with the medium itself; too many contributions are analyses of life in the digital world. On the other hand, the site of a journal like Lacanian Ink mainly publishes electronic abstracts of articles that have already come out in paper format. And lastly, journals that involve law like thŽmis have very little to do with the subject matters that basileus is supposed to be about, that is, the philosophy of law.

In addition to the substantial aspects of the journal, this has also been a private technical excercise in HTML editing, and hence the rather "homely" appearance. During the course of following issues, the journal will most likely change as our experiences grow. We have so far deliberately avoided the use of professional experts, but eventually we will most likely ask one to design the visual presentation of the journal along the lines that have now been established. This will give me and the editorial staff more time to concentrate on the contents.

I have, then, no idea how all this will turn out. Is an electronic journal such as this one merely a digitalised form of the traditional mode of publishing? Or does it have a "hyper-textual" essence of its own that will eventually surface? I hope that you will join me in exploring the possibilities of this relatively new medium.

This, the first issue, is devoted to Pindar's famous fragment from which the name of the journal is adopted, and to interpretations and commentaries that have been written about it. A couple of such contributions are, as you will see, there, but just as many are about something different. I believe that this is a wise editorial policy: not to stick too hard-headedly with a given theme if other excellent contributions are available, as well.

As you can well imagine from the titles of this issue, many texts include Greek characters that may require some technical adjustments to your equipment. We have used the "Sgreek" font that you have to first download into your computer before your browser will be able to interpret the characters (cf. Silver Mountain Software). "Sgreek" is supported by, e.g., Netscape's Navigator 4. I would like to thank Michael Eldred for his invaluable advice.

Similarly, we have used the ISO-8859-1 (ISO Latin-1) character set in order to facilitate cross-European communication. Visitors with Anglophonic settings in their equipment may, I'm afraid, find the German/Scandinavian umlauts and the accents blurred. I can only encourage you to join the polyglot world.

This project would not be able to evolve if it did not receive feedback from its readers. You can always approach us by email, but we have also devised a specific feedback form with which you can evaluate our enterprise and that you can send to us anonymously. You can also use the form in order to send messages to the individual authors whose texts you may want to comment.

Lastly a few words in honour of the colleagues, friends and strangers that I have been pestering with emails and faxes during the past six months. The life of a journal is entirely dependent on the generosity of its contributors. I am grateful beyond words to all who have donated their wisdom and their precious time, and I hope that basileus will eventually be able to live up to your expectations. I am also in debt to the editorial staff that has given valuable advice and encouragement.

The second issue, out in September, will centre on the philosophy of law of Schelling, and the first issue in 1999 is on the situationists. Consider this a "call for papers": contributions are welcome (see notes).

I am pleased to have you with us.

Friday, March 13, 1998

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