Hello,

I am Wikipedia user L'être et le néant, and—to state the obvious—this is my user page. Information about my contributions, edits, editing focus, and certain topics of interest can be found below.

A note on the name edit

First, though, here is a brief explanation of my username. L'être et le néant is French for "being and nothingness," a nod to existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre's 1943 book Being and Nothingness: An Essay on Phenomenological Ontology (the original French title is L'étre et le néant : Essai d'ontologie phénoménologique). I speak and understand French at the C1/C2 level and have been interested in Western philosophy for as long as I can remember; these, however, are hardly my only interests.

Allons-y !

Why contribute to Wikipedia? edit

I believe passionately in the idea of Wikipedia and think it's pretty damn cool that Wikipedia makes so much human knowledge available to anyone for free. Sharing knowledge is nothing but a good thing. I guess what I am trying to say is that I want to be part of the discussion and am happy to contribute to and improve Wikipedia in any way I can.

Editing focus edit

I typically focus on expanding stubs and improving articles in various ways, such as by making edits to improve clarity and readability, adding and citing corroborative information sources, correcting factual errors, and so on.

Miscellaneous topics of interest edit

(Listed in no particular order)

  • Education, higher education, colleges and universities, schools, and academic institutions
  • Language and linguistics
    • English language
      • Differences between British and American English
    • French language
    • Spanish language
    • Romance languages in general
      • Portuguese, French, Spanish, Italian, Romanian, and others
    • To a somewhat lesser extent, Cyrillic languages and the Cyrillic alphabet
    • Latin, Greek, and other classic languages
    • Various aspects of linguistic study
      • Syntax, semantics, phonology, orthography, etymology, grammar, geolinguistics, and others
  • Geography, maps, cartography, GIS, topography, human geography, and navigation
  • Science, the scientific method, and public understanding of science
    • Biology, ecology, zoology, taxonomy, evolutionary biology, and animal studies
      • Relations between human and nonhuman animals
      • Animal cognition, intelligence, and consciousness
    • Environmental science
      • Climate change
      • Anthropogenic effects on the environment
    • Physics, quantum mechanics, string theory, and thermodynamics
  • Public radio, podcasts, podcasting
  • Philosophy
    • Western philosophy
      • Early modern philosophy
      • To a somewhat lesser extent, classic and ancient philosophy
      • 20th- and 21st-century philosophy
        • Nick Bostrom's simulation hypothesis
      • Epistemology, ontology, existentialism, metaphysics, philosophy of mind, philosophy of language, teleology
      • Political theory
  • Politics
    • Politics of the United States
    • International politics
    • Political leaders, public figures, and elected officials
  • International relations
  • Writing
    • Nonfiction writing
    • Article writing and blogging
    • Freelance writing
    • The writing process
    • Style guides (e.g., The Chicago Manual of Style, The Associated Press Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law)
  • Music, music composition, music production, music theory
    • Piano and keyboard
    • Electronic music, alternative/indy music, classical music, hip-hop, electropop, synthwave, rock music
  • Cycling, road cycling, road bikes, TT bikes, cyclocross
  • Photography
  • Filmmaking, short films, documentaries
  • Art, modern art, abstract art, sculpture, painting, design, graphic design, visual communication, digital art
  • Web development, CMS, coding, computer science, website building, HTML, CSS, Java, web design
  • Reading, books, magazines
  • Critical theory, critical thinking, analysis, problem solving
  • Social sciences, sociocultural theory
  • Travel
  • Sustainability, renewable and alternative energy, green energy
  • Cats
  • Nature, forests, plants, and gardening
  • Technology, data, data analytics
  • (Various other topics not listed here)