PHIL 1410

PHIL 1410 was a fun course that was slightly disorganized in the beginning but grew more clear as the course developed. The material in the first half is light as you learn about different arguments forms: modus ponens, modus tollens, etc. You explore 4 primary texts (Quine, Moody-Adams, Clifford, and Plato) where each philosopher has distinct thoughts about arguments and the ethics of belief. We had about one reading a week with 2 quizzes afterwards. Your grade is made up of:
- Exams (midterm and final) making up 30%
- Homework (in-class assignments) making up 20%
- Quizzes (online/in-person) making up 20%
- Project (presentation or paper) making up 30%
Anderson himself is a lenient and passionate professor. You can tell that he really likes teaching philosophy and having students ask tough questions. Being a 1000-level course, it is meant for first years, but there are A LOT of upperclassmen in the course taking it for the AIP requirement. That being said, the class can feel a bit advanced and like there are not enough assignments to raise your grade after you fail something. Overall, I would recommend this class to first-years looking to fulfill the AIP requirement with a professor that wants you to succeed.

Forms of reasoning was OK. Professor Anderson is really nice and enthusiastic, and he loves to talk about philosophy. But it seemed like he had trouble "feeling" the class, so he'd make a lot of the assignments way easier than they needed to be. That meant that, while I learned new things, I didn't feel like my life changed or anything. However, he did have a good ethical theme throughout the class about how we ought to inquire into reality and question our own beliefs. And he was a new professor this semester, so I'm sure he's just getting the hang of things. The final project was kind of a mess, but again, he'll probably refine it in the future. Overall, neither a terrible nor terrific class for completing the philosophy major requirement.

Joseph Anderson is so kind and understanding. He’s a great person. This was my first philosophy class ever. The topic itself isn’t overly interesting, but he tries his best during lectures to make it fun. The work wasn’t a ton, maybe one or two homework assignments a week that took about 45 minutes each. The midterm and final weren’t very hard as long as you go over all the exercises he gives you and from the book. I would definitely recommend taking good notes when he goes over readings we had, as these can get confusing so it’s nice to refer back to come test time. He also ended up dropping some things at the end of the semester, which bumped my grade up a good amount.

Professor Anderson is so lovely to learn from. He's super thoughtful, is kind and considerate of students' personal issues, is communicative, and is great at lecturing. I love that he brings in personal anecdotes/tidbits from his life to help students understand in-class material and examples. The course is quite easy to excel in; just be sure to complete all the quizzes and show up to class a decent amount of the time to complete required worksheets (that he goes over in class!). There's a schedule posted for you to keep up with. The final presentation is easy and quite engaging if you choose a topic you're actually interested in it. I enjoyed it a lot and we were able to double our presentation grades for our final paper grade, which was so convenient. I did maybe 80% of the readings and got through the class perfectly fine, but I did find most of the material genuinely interesting. If you're a CS major, definitely take this as an integration elective for a fun and easy A. If you're not a CS major, take it anyways! It's useful and applicable to real life. #tCFS24