PHIL 1710

Average course. Not horrible, but not highly recommended. I never did any of the readings except before the paper. Lecture is boring, BUT Langsam is clearly really passionate about philosophy and if you take notes from his lectures it actually helps a lot when it comes time to write the paper because he breaks down the readings a lot.
Discussion was really boring and dry and didn't help me.
If you like philosophy, take it if you're willing to pay attention. If you're looking for an easy A with no work, I wouldn't suggest. Easy B+ though.

Unless you’re interested in philosophy, DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS. I took this class thinking that it would teach me about life and how to have a happy and meaningful life, but that’s not what it was AT ALL. The entire course was useless, as it was just about a bunch of philosophers and intellectual scholars arguing over pointless theories and trying to prove his/her theory to be correct. Even though you can tell that Mr. Langsam is really passionate about philosophy from his lectures, he has no visual aids, and so I felt bored to death every single class. Discussions were useless and boring too. I had Jimin Lee for my TA, and even though she was nice and friendly, she had a very thick accent and it was difficult to understand her at times.

This course was essentially OK, and if you can, I would highly recommend taking it CR/NC, since professor Langsam's lectures are actually fairly interesting usually, and discussions are also very interesting. The one major issue with the class is that there is little direction for the class itself, and discussions are not really guided in any way. My TA, for example, primarily sat back and let us talk, which is good in most cases, but general direction and some intentional focusing of the conversation could have been beneficial. Additionally, the papers are a bit unclear and, though they can be somewhat interesting to write, challenging not in the way one would seek in terms of philosophical thought but in terms of determining what it is they want you to write about and how to do so.

Langsam is a very interesting, engaging lecturer - I wish I attended his class more than I did, because I feel like I would've gotten a lot more out of it. Discussion was OK, my TA (Jimin) had a very heavy accent, and didn't really set clear expectations for our papers, yet graded pretty harshly so I ended with a B in the class. Overall, this was a pretty standard intro Philosophy course, but I don't feel like I learned very much from it. The readings and lectures were pretty straightforward, and it only had about 4 papers all semester, making the workload very manageable; if you need something to satisfy the humanities requirement, I would recommend it.

I am an engineering student, so I was scared to take a class that is so paper heavy, but I found this class was worth my time and effort. I do recommend doing the readings (at least quite a few of them, some are hard to read because of the way they are printed) because it makes it easier to figure out which paper prompt you can write best. Lecture can get boring a repetitive, but that's what philosophy is, so that's what you should expect anyways. I went to over half the lectures and I would say they are worthwhile especially if you didn't understand or do the reading. Harold is a reasonable guy and only made us write 3 papers due to COVID 19 and gave us a free A for the last paper. I went to most discussions and had Jimin Lee as a TA and my friends and all really liked her, she sometimes is hard to understand, but gives good examples and helps you understand the material and what she wants from a paper; sometimes she brings candy. Not too hard of a grade if you work a bit for it.

Langsam is a funny guy and makes lectures interesting. Unfortunately, if you're not interested in Philosophy this class can be a bit dry. There are a lot of philosophers that you are "supposed" to know what their views are on things etc. I would say this class could be really easy if you want it to be: you could wait for essay prompts to come out (4 essays / semester) then try to understand only that material and write a decent essay. However, listening to Langsam is important because you won't be in the right mindset and know how you are supposed to be thinking.
If you listen to lectures, take basic notes, and write decently, you should get an A depending on your TA grader (Jimin is really nice).

This is a great course to take to fulfill the humanities requirement. The only grades you have are 4 essays so that's nice. The readings are dense, but that's to be expected for philosophy. However, Langsam does a great job of clarifying the readings during lecture so I would recommend going. Also, for each essay he gives you like 6-8 options so you can choose to write about what you understand best. Most of the options also only directly relate to 1-2 readings so in theory you can get away without doing every reading. However, as someone who got an A, I would recommend highly annotating each reading because you don't necessarily know which one you are going to write about and it's nice to have these annotations so you don't have to re-read 40 pages in depth before the essay. If you are a good writer, you'll be fine. My TA was Jimin Lee, and she was wonderful. The essays are standard: 2 6-8 page essays and 2 3-5 page essays. Sometimes you feel that you are being redundant which is why I really emphasize understanding in depth the readings (i.e. a prompt can be "is reason what makes us people" or something to that effect which can be daunting to write 7 pages on). However, if you go to lectures, do the readings, and are a good writer I dont see how you wouldn't get lower than a B+ in this class.

This class was alright. If you did the readings and paid attention in lectures, it was honestly pretty interesting. Professor Langsam is a pretty interesting guy, and he's, for the most part, an engaging lecturer. The discussion section was pretty useful because my TA would reiterate all the major points and basically just talk to us for the whole time, rather than making us answer difficult questions, so it was easy to get full marks even without doing the readings. You write four papers throughout the semester and that is pretty much your whole grade, but there are a number of prompts to choose from, each corresponding more or less with one day of reading and lecture, so if there is one class that you understand really well, you'll be fine. I had a very difficult time with this class once we went online for COVID, because it became really hard to focus on readings and the more dry lectures. Still, this class wasn't all that hard, and I did feel like I got something out of it. A word of advice: pay attention at least to the first few lectures, because a lot of the basic topics get built upon as the semester progresses.

THIS CLASS IS NOTHING LIKE THE DESCRIPTION!! I went into this class thinking it would teach me how to live a "happy, satisfying, meaningful, and fulfilling life," but instead it did absolutely nothing of that sort. The entire class is philosophers arguing their views and ideas. The readings are extremely hard to understand/dense and are extremely uninteresting unless you are genuinely interested in philosophy. I signed up for this class to fulfill a gen ed requirement, and dropped it halfway through. This class is not worth it and I highly recommend taking a different class!!! Langsam is clearly passionate about what he is teaching, but all of his lectures are just him talking with no visual aid. They are VERY boring. The discussions are not very helpful, as many of the students sit there extremely confused. 90% of your grade is based on essays, so unless you are a really good writer it will be very hard to get an A. Seriously, do not take this class!!!

This class was super interesting to understand and look more into society and our human nature. I was a little scared to take it because it is a paper heavy class, but I ended up enjoying it. It was a little overwhelming in the beginning of the semester, but it all worked out. I would definitely recommend reading the readings after watching the lectures because it makes writing the papers so much easier!