PHIL 2500

Slurs, Bad Words, and Unruly Language was my first philosophy class and I took it for the cog sci major. Honestly I don’t like philosophy, but I’m glad I took this class over other philosophy classes. Fox is a great professor. He’s very kind and chill and he does his best to make this course as easy and low-stress as possible. That being said, the philosophical concepts were hard for me to understand (maybe because I’m more used to STEM classes). I was able to understand the main ideas and did well on tests though. The textbook is about $10 and the other articles were available on collab. There isn’t a lot of reading (like 20 pages per week and you don’t have assigned reading every class). I stopped doing the readings because they were confusing. Your final grade is based on participation (10%), a presentation (10%; a 10 minute presentation using stuff you learned in class to analyze something like a movie clip, a song, etc), online weekly reflections (10%), 3 tests (15%, 20%, and 25%), and a final paper (10%; 1-2 pages double spaced). He has review guides and review sessions before the tests. My final grade was much higher than I expected, so the class isn’t super hard. So if you need a philosophy class to fill a requirement, this is a fairly interesting class with a fantastic professor. If you love philosophy or have taken other philosophy classes before, you’ll probably really enjoy this class.

For Slurs, Bad Words, and Unruly Language: This was a fairly interesting class with a kind and accommodating professor. I personally found some of the deep philosophy of language and its theories/jargon to be a bit dry, but it wasn't too bad. Your grade is made up of participation, a case study presentation, discussion board posts, three tests, and a final paper. I took this as a class to fulfill the philosophy requirement for the cog sci major, and for that purpose, it was fine. Not an amazing course but definitely far from a bad one, and the professor is approachable and flexible with students' situations. If you find concepts regarding the philosophy of language interesting, especially with regards to slurs and other derogatory language, I would definitely recommend, but it's also definitely not for everyone.
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