PHIL 2640

This class is great! Dr. Barnes is a phenomenal lecturer. Though she is very politically inclined that doesn't come out much if at all during lecture. Her examples are great, and she is super good about making philosophical concepts make sense. If you like writing and vaguely enjoy philosophy you'll like this class!

In terms of grading it's pretty simple, you have 4 writing assignments of increasing complexity and length. If you have any previous understanding of philosophy, the first 2 are a piece of cake. Succeeding in this class is not difficult at all if you put in a mild amount of work.

In terms of readings, I personally only did the ones I wrote my essays on. If you really care about doing the readings do them after the Tuesday lecture so you walk in with a general understanding of whats going on.

Go to class, but if you're going to miss one miss the Tuesday lecture - it's usually overview, and while its still helpful most of the actual interpretation/argument discussion is on Thursday anyways. She posts slides but they aren't very helpful because they're super vague. Notes are not too important, you'll be fine as long as you pay attention (she has some pretty long winded examples, once you get it you can kind of fade away).

For any given writing assignment at least make sure you go to both of one week's lectures so that you really know whats going on. For the more difficult writing assignments (3 and 4) you can select your topic, so as long as you have one on lock you'll be fine.

ALWAYS GO TO DISCUSSION, the TAs in the philosophy department are awesome and will set you up for success on the essays. They will also help you on your essay if you ask nicely, clearing things up as needed - you'll be walking in blind if you didn't go to the lectures or do the readings, but even then you can get a pretty good understanding of whats going on. Attendance is taken, and it is part of your grade.

If you've taken any philosophy class in the past, you know exactly what the essays look like. They're not too bad, and if you're a good writer I'd say you can get 1 and 2 done in about an hour each. 3 and 4 will take longer, probably about 5-6 hours, but you do have a very long time to get everything done. Considering your grade is almost entirely essay based, putting in the time is worth it, especially considering how lenient she is on lecture attendance / how much you can get away with just not going (because of the way the options you have work).

That's pretty much it, 5/5 class experience, and definitely worth taking it even though it was at 8AM

#tCFS24

Professor Barnes is super funny and always smiling, and she taught an awesome course. The work was not bad—there's a weekly reading which takes about 2 hours, some discussion posts, and two 2000-2500 word essays, plus discussion section. The material was fairly technical (which I enjoy, as a philosophy major), but it is about how we make choices in our own lives, so anyone should find it intriguing. My TA James Reed was super intelligent and fair.

This course involves 2 lectures and 1 discussion section per week. Participation is earned by answering 10 discussion posts throughout the semester (you must attend lecture to receive the discussion question) and by attending discussion sections. The rest of your grade is determined by 2 essays (each 2000+ words).

If you've taken a philosophy course before, the papers are nothing new, just the usual defense/criticism of an argument presented in class. Personally, I would not recommend this course if you have a lot of philosophy experience. I found that many of the papers baked in so many assumptions that it made it difficult to locate where I disagreed. In all honesty, I stopped doing the readings for this reason.

If you haven't taken a philosophy course before, this may be more your speed. Some of the readings are dense, but Barnes does a great job of explaining their general arguments. It could be an interesting introduction to the field

Overall: I found the class somewhat lacking, but this may be due to my prior experience in philosophy. The papers were typical difficulty (not hard to get an A, just takes significant planning). It's not a terrible course if you're interested in the subject matter. Definitely not an easy A, though. #tCFspring2022

Professor Barnes is awesome! She genuinely makes class interesting, even for an 8am. Attending class is mandatory, but no attendance is taken, so you can get away with missing if you need to. Also there are weekly readings assigned that aren't too bad. The only thing is that in the weekly discussion section attendance is taken and the TA will probably know if you didn't read or go to lecture if you seem clueless and could take points off your grade, so try to familiarize yourself with the material before discussion. The only assignments are a midterm essay, a final essay, and a participation grade, which is made of 10 discussion posts on collab and your participation in discussion section. Overall a pretty light workload, and still pretty manageable even when essays were due. It also counts as a second writing requirement which was awesome. Professor Barnes makes herself available for her students and genuinely cares for them. We also had an extra credit meme competition where the winner either got 5 extra points on the final essay or an extension.

For a first philosophy class and/or second writing requirement class, I highly recommend this one. Professor Barnes, even in an online format, is a super effective lecture and lectures in this class are some of the few I've looked forward to in any classes I've taken. As far as the readings go, most are 20-30 pages each week, and while this was my first philosophy class, I imagine these readings are tolerable as far as philosophy goes. Your grade is largely based on the two essays you write; Barnes takes into account that this may be your first philosophy class so the second essay is weighted more heavily than the first if there's considerable improvement. Barnes clearly cares about her students and their wellbeing and continually takes this into account throughout the semester. She's readily there to support her students and see to it that they prosper. While I'm not an outspoken person myself, discussion sections were not bad at all and reasonably easy to engage in. Nathan Frank was my TA and he was great. Discussion sections would start off in small groups before going to the main group which helped a lot. Even as a (BA)CS major, I highly recommend this class, particularly if you're looking to fill your 2nd writing requirement. #tCFspring2021

Prof. Barnes was a great lecturer, even in the online asynchronous format. The philosophy papers assigned each week were arduous to get through, and I quickly just decided on to read them until I had to write a paper on one. This class was graded through two papers (2500 words each) and participation. The papers were difficult, but the concepts not too hard to grasp.

Professor Barnes is an amazing professor!! Her lectures were always easy to follow, applicable, and funny. The class's workload was very bearable-- 1 reading a week that was 20-30 pages and 2 8-10 page papers. The readings were sometimes hard to follow, and she doesn't go too in-depth about their arguments during lectures, but you really only need to understand 2 of them for your papers. James was my TA and he was very understanding and made the discussion sections something to look forward to. I would definitely recommend this class-- it was the first philosophy class I'd taken and I'm happy that I did! #tCFspring2021

100% recommend this course. It has very interesting material that is incredibly relevant to this weird stage in our lives where we're making all these big decisions that have the potential to change the course of our lives, such as what to major in, what field to work in, who to date, etc. It is challenging in that the readings can be dense and complex, but many students take it as their first introduction to philosophy and Professor Barnes is conscious of that and makes an effort to teach students how to best engage with the material. On a day to day basis, the workload is VERY light, so there is also plenty of time to clear up any confusion. There are only two essays throughout the semester and a variety of essay prompts means you're bound to find a topic you're interested in writing in. Discussion sections also help a lot. Finally, Professor Barnes is exceedingly kind and has a profound awareness of her presence as a role model and advisor for students. She genuinely loves getting to know her students. At a difficult time in which all of us are attending school with additional mental and physical strain, Professor Barnes engaged us with provoking questions and discussions without adding unnecessary stress and busy work. Excellent professor and excellent course.

I loved this class! Elizabeth Barnes is an excellent professor and one of the smartest ones I've had at UVA. Her lectures were very interesting, and she was incredibly understanding and kind about lectures and grading when classes moved online due to covid. The only assignments you have for this class are two 10-page papers (each 40%, participation 20%), which sounds long but the topics are interesting/you have choices for what you write about, so the length comes naturally (I was actually over the word limit and I definitely am not a passionate writer). Other than that it's just one reading per week, which are reasonable and sometimes hard to follow, but as far as philosophy classes go, not that bad. Stephen (TA) was also very understanding and generous with grading and participation. I ended up with an A in the class and found it one of my most interesting philosophy classes.

Definitely a course you ought to take before you graduate. There's a low volume of reading weekly (less than 20 pages per WEEK) and Professor Barnes does an excellent job communicating the topics of the course. There are only two papers, 2500 words each, and she is very accessible if you have questions. Take advantage!

Great professor, very nice and understanding. She's very laidback and lectures like she's talking to a colleague. She enjoys interacting in the classroom and her online lectures were all YouTube videos which were the highlight of my quarantine coursework. I enjoyed hearing her perspective on the material. A lot of it was set up like a vlog that I would watch on my own time if available. That's how interesting it was (to me at least). There's two papers that she grades and that's it. Could be a good thing or a bad thing depending on your grasp of philosophy papers. I'd call myself a pretty good writer that put basic level of effort into them and I did well. I'd recommend the class to my friends that aren't as literary too.

Professor Barnes is an amazing professor. I'm a STEM major and this class was still extremely interesting and engaging. The papers were difficult to wrap my head around but there are only two of them and the TA or professor Barnes are always there to help. Professor Barnes made this class a lot more approachable than I was anticipating.