User talk:Wikiriker

Week of 2/16
I intend to edit the Nicomachean Ethics page. In studying the page I have noticed that phrasing and examples are often repeated. There are formatting issues in terms of the structuring of the "deficiency, mean, excess" headings, misspellings of historical names, and the overall grammar is poor. I will also develop particular sections including using new references/citations to support my contributions. I have reached out to two classmates regarding collaboration via Wiki Talk pages but have not received responses. In the event that no one is interested in group work, I will work on my own.

Wikiriker (talk) 07:24, 16 February 2015 (UTC)

Week of 2/23
I have changed my project from the Nicomachean Ethics page to the Atheistic Existentialism. Given the lack of consistency on the page, I will make adjustments to the following areas:

- an expansion on the Sartre "Major Works" section, an expansion on the Camus "Major Works" section, the addition of Nietzsche as an Existentialist Philosopher under the "Major Works" section.

The reason I have chosen these areas is because I believe there are gross omissions, such as Nietzsche oversight. Considering that he was one of the founders of Atheistic Existentialism, it does not make sense that he is not listed on the page. Even the wiki talk page has a user post questioning why Nietzsche has been overlooked. In regards to Camus, while he is included in the opening intro, he is not listed under the Major Works section either. For consistency, I would like to add a sub-heading including Camus.

Wikiriker (talk) 21:24, 26 February 2015 (UTC)

Week of 3/2
Since my last entry, I have completed and posted a detailed summary of my proposed changes to the Atheistic Existentialism talk page. Using both the internet and the school library, I have researched and compiled a bibliography of twelve sources (see Working Bibliography Section) and also posted them to the talk page for user comments. My primary search terms were "Atheism, Existentialism, Nietzsche, Camus, Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir." My next steps are to continue reading the references and begin editing the Major Works section of my article in the sandbox.

Major Edits:

Introduction - provide outline of what atheistic existentialism is not just in relation to its opposite, Christian existentialism. What are the key differences between Kierkegaard's and Sartre's philosophies? I believe this is an important distinction because, while they were both Existentialists, one Kierkegaard believed in God while Sartre did not.

Thought - expand in greater detail, perhaps make connections between existentialism and nihilism. It just doesn't look like there is enough "meat" in this section.

Major Works - Sartre: expand more on his ideas rather than just a description of the novel Nausea. Camus: include more detail on what is meant by "the absurd."

Add to Major Works section - Simone de Beauvoir who is mentioned in the introduction but not listed under major works. Nietzsche who was a major contributor to the discussion of atheistic existentialism.

Minor Edits:

Provide citations where requested in existing article or edit according to newly acquired source citations. Remove or edit sections listed as original research.

Wikiriker (talk) 01:51, 2 March 2015 (UTC)

Week of 3/9
This week for my Wikipedia project I made arrangements to meet with my other group member (Shelby Stanford) regarding our Wiki page. We discussed which sections each of us were going to focus on. She will work on summaries for the French philosophers and I will work on sections for the German philosophers. In preparation for adding a new section on Nietzsche, I read "Existentialism: The Atheistic Thread" by James T. Griffin and began composing a paragraph in my sandbox that I will eventually transition to the actual wiki page. One reason I decided to start in this manner is because of how crucial a role that Nietzsche played in the acceptance of Atheistic Existentialism. After all, he was the one who first said "God is dead." Furthermore, based on the Wikipedia Course page homework assignments, I added myself as a reviewer on two student pages whose topics interested me. I plan to provide feedback to help them improve their articles.

Wikiriker (talk) 00:13, 10 March 2015 (UTC)

Week of 3/16
This week I read all of my sources on Nietzsche and completed an annotated bibliography. Since I am focusing specifically on Nietzsche for the time being, I opted to post a bibliography of the sources I'm using for this first edited section in my sandbox.

Wikiriker (talk) 06:04, 16 March 2015 (UTC)

Week of 3/23
This week I checked the talk page to see if anyone had responded to my proposed changes. As I had not received any feedback, I made minor edits to the actual Wikipedia page in terms of phrasing and consolidation. I removed a sentence which was fairly unimportant and had been contested as needing citation. I also identified additional inconsistencies in formatting which should be adjusted, such as adding hyperlinks to the philosophers' names for additional references through Wikipedia. Finally, after reading more about Kierkegaard, I have opted not to include him under the "Major Works" section. Although he was a proponent of Existentialism, he was decidedly not an Atheist. Rather, he laid the foundation for Existentialism which other philosophers such as Nietzsche, Sartre and Camus built upon. I prefer to include him in the intro section of the article as a precursor to Atheistic Existentialism.

Wikiriker (talk) 06:23, 24 March 2015 (UTC)

Week of 3/30
This week I went back over all of my Wikipedia journal entries and sorted them with proper headings to indicate what I have done each week. Given the feedback I have received thus far on my Wiki Journal, I also decided to add more detail in regards to my search progress since beginning the project. I also reviewed my sandbox and refined my entry on Nietzsche and am ready to move it to Wikipedia, upon approval. The sources I used in writing my article were chosen using a combination of data I had previously collected from online databases (encyclopedic websites)and via our school library database. I refreshed my memory on how to include in-text citations so that my article does not get rejected upon peer review. Finally, I evaluated two other student's articles (Alexis Mumford on Imago Therapy and Miguelsnchz723 on Artificial Intelligence) and provided positive feedback on their sandbox talk pages. This, in and of itself, was a time-consuming task since I had to sort through all of the sandboxes in the hopes that people had posted their articles. The two people I reviewed were chosen because they were the only ones who had posted an article in their sandboxes.

Wikiriker (talk) 05:25, 31 March 2015 (UTC)

Week of 4/6
I began this week's research by reading the comments left about my article in my sandbox. Suggestions were made to reconsider how I use the work by Wildman because of its religious take on Nietzsche. As such, I reread both the Wildman and Samual articles for clarification of their respective positions regarding Nietzsche's views on nihilism. I believe that these two opposing views will provide a balanced and fair assessment of the difference of opinion regarding the subject. Furthermore, I did research the use of the word Existentialism to determine whether it was common vernacular during Nietzsche's time. According to the Wikipedia page on existentialism, "Søren Kierkegaard and Friedrich Nietzsche were two of the first philosophers considered fundamental to the existentialist movement, though neither used the term "existentialism" and it is unclear whether they would have supported the existentialism of the 20th century." For this reason, I have opted to continue to refer to Nietzsche as an existentialist. I also began making changes to my existing post in preparation for draft two, which is due on Thursday. Finally, I looked to see if any comments had been left on the Atheistic Existentialism Wiki page (none to date since mine) and checked to see if my classmates whose articles I provided feedback for had responded (they had not).

Wikiriker (talk) 06:40, 6 April 2015 (UTC)

Week of 4/13
This week I accomplished quite a bit. First of all, I refined my draft to be more detailed about Nietzsche's position on nihilism. In doing so, I also added two new citations to my revised citation list (previously listed above). Essentially, I clarified that Nietzsche viewed nihilism as being an unavoidable step to developing a new morality. In other words, he did not advocate for nihilism but, rather, what lies beyond it. I also added hyperlinks to my section which allow the reader to do further investigation into topics briefly addressed in my summary. I made permanent changes to the Wiki page including the renaming of "Major Works" to "Notable Proponents" and the relocation of some bits of information into more appropriate sections. I also edited the intro paragraph on the site to remove unverified citations and original work, as well as to further clarify ideas which were poorly worded. I also made notes on the talk page for Atheistic Existentialism explaining what changes I had made and why, as well as which changes still needed to be made. I want to avoid people undoing my writing because they believe I have left things off when, in fact, I am still in the process of editing. Lastly, I provided positive feedback to my assigned partner on her Wikipedia article entry.

Wikiriker (talk) 06:08, 13 April 2015 (UTC)

Working Bibliography
Proposed Bibliography (2ND REVISION):

Bergoffen, Debra, "Simone de Beauvoir", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2014 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), Web. URL = .

Crowell, Steven, "Existentialism", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2015 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), forthcoming URL = .

Griffin, James T. "Existentialism: The Atheistic Thread," Philippine Studies, Vol. 8, No. 1 (January, 1960), pp. 75-81. Print.

Metz, Thaddeus, "The Meaning of Life", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2013 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), Web. URL = .

Michels, Steven. "Nietzsche, Nihilism, and the Virtue of Nature", Dogma: Revue de Philosophie et de Sciences Humaines (Oct. 2004). Web. URL = http://www.dogma.lu/txt/SM-Nietzsche.htm

Pratt, Alan. "Nihilism," The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Web. URL = http://www.iep.utm.edu/nihilism/

Smart, J. J. C., "Atheism and Agnosticism", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2013 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = .

Wikiriker (talk) 20:02, 5 March 2015 (UTC)

Annotated Bibliography
Working Annotated Bib (1ST REVISION)

Samual, Adrian. "Nietzsche and God (Part 1)," Richmond Journal of Philosophy (Spring 2007 Edition) URL = http://www.richmond-philosophy.net/rjp/back_issues/rjp14_samuel.pdf

This article addresses the meaning behind Nietzsche's statement that "God is dead." Furthermore, it elaborates upon the concept of nihilism and where Nietzsche stands in relation to this ideology. According to Samuel, not only did Nietzsche believe that religion itself confounded human perceptions and understandings of life's meaning, he believed that the concept of God was THE problem which held humanity back. He argued that "God is both a symptom and a cause of the world’s disenchantment" (7). Since Nietzsche was one of the earliest philosophers to question ask existentialist questions (though the term existentialism was not yet defined), I am using this source to reinforce the importance of his ideologies to what later became known as atheistic existentialism.

Wicks, Robert, "Friedrich Nietzsche", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2014 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = 

This site provides a history of Nietzsche including key moments in his life. Additionally, it summarizes all of his works and the important contributions that each had on 20th century philosophy. For example, Wicks points out the unfortunate association that Nietzsche had with the Nazi's and Italian Fascists. He is, however, quick to defend Nietzsche as it is now believed to be the his sister who reworked his writings to suit her own racist agenda. This source is useful to me as a means of identifying which works I should be referencing as key works on the Wiki page as well as the reasons why Nietzsche's reputation was so damaged and is still often ignored. Furthermore, it helps me get a sense of the timeline in which to compare him with other philosophers who wrote on the subject of existentialism.

Wildman, Wesley. "Profound Atheism: Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900)," Boston University, URL = http://people.bu.edu/wwildman/WeirdWildWeb/courses/wphil/lectures/wphil_theme18.htm

This article explains Nietzsche's views on Atheism in detail although it does so with a religious slant. In this regard, I focused more on the arguments advanced as being representative of Nietzsche's philosophy as opposed to the specific details of the conclusions drawn by the author. Of specific use to my research was the summary of the two types of morality which Nietzsche defined: herd morality and master morality. It is the first type which he attributes to Christianity in his attack against religion. Given Nietzsche's association with oppressive movements of dictators such as Hitler and Mussolini, it is easy to see why his philosophy is often under attack. Certainly, I don't agree with Wildman who equates Nietsche's anti-religious philosophy to a "truck-full-of-pitchforks-criticism" against God; however, this source does provide me with a criticism of Nietzsche that is necessary to establish a balance between opposing views regarding his philosophy, as is required by Wikipedia.

Wikiriker (talk) 06:04, 16 March 2015 (UTC) Wikiriker (talk) 05:35, 27 April 2015 (UTC)

Week of 4/20
This week I have fine-tuned my addition to Wikipedia. This consists of confirming that my links are properly functioning and that my sources are correctly referenced. I also checked the Atheistic Existentialism page to determine if anyone had commented on my proposed changes. Since there were no objections, I finally posted my paragraph to the live Wikipedia page. Furthermore, I went back and edited my annotated bibliography to include more detail as to why I chose the sources I did and how they influenced my assessment of Nietzsche and Atheistic Existentialism. As a follow-up to my main contribution, I also edited the "thought" section to include more links to Wikipedia pages as well as correct the one citation entry that existed previously on the page. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to go through and find sources for the content that was previously written. Finally, I will be making other small editing changes to my wiki page to create a final product which is a more improved version of what I first encountered when looking up my topic.

Wikiriker (talk) 05:05, 27 April 2015 (UTC)

Transfer of Final Work from Sandbox
This is my original research and writing which I posted to the "Major Proponents" section of my page.

Considered one of the founding fathers of Existentialism, German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche was a critic of Christian theology. Arguing that morality itself is a human construct, as opposed to the laws of nature which are inherently morally-neutral, Nietzsche divided morality into two types: herd morality and master morality. It is this first type, herd morality, which he associates with religion, specifically, with Christianity. In his book, The Gay Science, Nietzsche utters his famous statement, "God is dead," which refers to his belief that morality can no longer be reasonably dictated by religion. It is for this reason that many associate Nietzsche's philosophy with nihilism. By contrast, others claim his assertion that nothing exists beyond this life merely requires us to rethink the tenets of morality, not to throw the concept of morality itself out the window. Indeed, they argue that while Nietzsche believed humanity was on track toward nihilism, he was not directly advocating it as the direction in which we should head.

Wikiriker (talk) 05:27, 6 April 2015 (UTC)

In additions to writing the above paragraph, I also edited the "Thoughts" sections as follows:

Atheistic existentialism refers to the exclusion of any transcendental, metaphysical, or religious beliefs from philosophical existentialist thought (e.g. anguish or rebellion in light of human finitude and limitations). Nevertheless, it shares elements with religious existentialism (e.g. the Philosophy of Søren Kierkegaard) and with metaphysical existentialism (e.g. through phenomenology and the works of Heidegger). Atheistic existentialism confronts death anxiety without appealing to a hope of somehow being saved by a God, and often without any appeal to alternate forms of supernatural salvation such as reincarnation. For some thinkers, existential malaise is mostly theoretical (as it is with Sartre) while others are quite affected by existential anguish (e.g. Camus and his discussion of the Absurd and Nietzsche who articulated the will to power).

This is not my original research (with the exception of the last sentence where I referenced Nietzsche), rather I edited sentence structure and paragraph format, added hyperlinks, and rephrased some of the sentences.

19:43, 30 April 2015 (UTC)