This course involves a LOT of reading and it's mostly dense material. It is a writing-intensive course that requires a minimum of 8 short essays, 3 short papers, and 1 term paper. It also has a final with a mix of short essays, multiple choice, and sentences with multiple fill-in-the-blank gaps. I personally felt like nothing in the course prepares you well for the exam. The grade distribution feels unbalanced. A huge part of the workload is the short essays and papers but the final accounts for 20% of your grade and the term paper for 25%. Doing poorly on either of those end-of-course items could end up causing you to fail the course. The instructor offered a few extra credit assignments, but they all involved attending live lectures on Friday afternoons which I couldn't attend because...read more

The course is useless for anyone who is not a philosophy major. It teaches nothing of importance to those involved in any branch of science and has only modest importance in terms of what it covers as part of history.

The professor was friendly and approachable and seemed to genuinely enjoy and understand the subject matter he's teaching. He wants students to engage with the material, but I felt like he failed to really do so or to stress what's really important to know, especially in terms of what you need to know for the final.

Don't take this course unless you really need it. Complete the readings before the class. Look for Quizlets and practice them weekly. Use resources to help summarize the material to make it easier to understand. Try to knock out any of the short responses you can early to allow more time to focus on the reading and papers without having them weigh on your mind throughout the course feeling like a burden. Use any breaks to work ahead to cut down on the workload at the end. If you do particularly well on a short paper immediately start expanding it and use it as your final Term Paper. That will give you plenty of time (hopefully) to revise it and get the best grade as opposed to coming up with something new.