PHIL 3140

This was a very intimate class - there were about 10-15 of us max. The course will consist of an obscene amount of reading, and you kinda have to do it or somehow bullshit your way through, because every lecture will comprise of Secada discussing at length and at great detail things from the readings. Participation is what he cares about most, so he will usually expect everyone to have something prepared (either a question or comment) each week.

Assignments/Grading: One term paper due at the end of the semester. There is absolutely zero guidance on this, you pick what you want to write about and how you plan to go about it - he expects it to be around 10 pages in length or 2250 words (just an estimate, he never actually specified).

There are also 3-4 "reading controls" throughout the semester. These will take up a large portion of your grade as well. He will release 2-5 short essay questions to be answered based on your takeaways from 300+ pages of philosophy readings. You are expected to write about 500 words explaining some topic from the readings...

I ended up waiting until they were out and then crammed and read whatever was relevant for the questions, because the amount of content he assigns for readings is unreal.

That being said, he's really wise, really passionate, and very fair about grading. It's a brilliant learning experience if you're into ancient and medieval philosophy and will basically be a ride through the ages, with a focus on theistic ideologies. If you do the readings, are active in lectures, and write a reasonable term paper - you will come out with a B+/A-.