PHIL 2060

Very interesting course that provides an introduction to moral and political questions of the legal system: what is a law? what defines a legal system? what makes a legal system just? what kinds of paternalism are justified? when is civil disobedience justified? Each week, students are assigned two readings (which are approximately 20-30 pages each, so they are completely doable). The readings during the first half of the course are a bit more tedious and often less applicable, for they track the largely semantic debate between political theorists Hart and Dworkin about what a law is. The readings during the second half, however, are very enjoyable and fun (and seemingly much more applicable).

Each student's grade consists of weekly discussion quizzes on the readings (20%), and two paper grades (each 40%). The weekly discussion quizzes are easy, as long as you have done the readings. In terms of the papers, three are assigned throughout the semester and your two highest scores are selected. I highly recommend this course to students interesting in philosophical, political, and legal debates – or also to those who are simply interested in gaining exposure to foundational literature in these fields.

I enjoyed this class and Prof. Motchoulski and would recommend it to anyone in need of a relatively easy but engaging Philosophy class. The grade consists of weekly reading quizzes (3 multiple-choice questions) in sections and 3 essay exams, the lowest of which is dropped. The course focuses on three units: 1. What is Law? 2. What can you do with Law? 3. When is it ok to break the law? Since it is an intro-level class, I found myself wanting to go a bit more in-depth into some of the material, but the time-constraints are to be expected. The lectures generally followed the readings pretty closely, so I did not feel like I needed to read extremely closely to learn the arguments. If you pay attention in lecture, the reading quizzes are a breeze. The lowest three are dropped which count for your excused absences. The exams generally ask you to apply the topics you learn to hypothetical scenarios. If you know the authors and their general positions, they are not too difficult to do well on. Overall, I would recommend this class.