PHILOS C115
Kant
Description: Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour. Requisite: course 21 or 22. Study of Kant's views on related topics in theory of knowledge, ethics, and politics. May be repeated for credit with consent of instructor. Concurrently scheduled with course C215. P/NP or letter grading.
Units: 4.0
Units: 4.0
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Most Helpful Review
Winter 2025 - This class is NOT easy. I would recommend this course if you are someone who loves Philosophy and CARES to do well. You will be absolutely rewarded in your efforts if you devote a significant amount of time to trying to understand it. Professor Burge warns students on the syllabus about how difficult the course is, and it spans most of the text of the syllabus. The course is about 7 weeks of establishing technical terms and 3 weeks of discussing key arguments in Kant’s “The Critique of Pure Reason.” Lectures take on the style of Professor Burge talking about things that seem highly disconnected until everything comes full circle as you study for your midterm. It is very difficult to sit and devote your full attention to taking notes for 2 hours, hanging on every last word. It is a task with huge cognitive load and the active listening/trying to figure out how to organize concepts in your notes is very difficult. You will find that you and your peers will often take different things from lectures. It is so important to make friends in this class, go to office hours, and come equipped with questions for discussion section. There is no homework! You read “The Critique of Pure Reason” on your own time as well as assigned passages, you don’t really talk about the book in lecture/discussion until the last 3 weeks where you review central arguments. It is not an easy book, but you can get by just reading what is assigned. For the midterm, Professor Burge assigns 9 questions for you to prep/memorize beforehand and then during the midterm he gives you 5 and you pick 3. It is similar for the final except you prep 12-18 questions, he gives you 4, and you pick 3 (all the midterm questions are fair game as well). The writing takes up the full 2 hour period for the midterm & final. The expectation is you spend about 45 minutes per question, and yes, there is that much content to cover in answering the questions. MY SUGGESTION: be organized in your notes from the start. All that said, yes this course is really hard, but I’ve loved every minute of it. It’s a masochistic kind of joy. There’s not much comparable to when you ***finally*** get it. I would 100% take it again.
Winter 2025 - This class is NOT easy. I would recommend this course if you are someone who loves Philosophy and CARES to do well. You will be absolutely rewarded in your efforts if you devote a significant amount of time to trying to understand it. Professor Burge warns students on the syllabus about how difficult the course is, and it spans most of the text of the syllabus. The course is about 7 weeks of establishing technical terms and 3 weeks of discussing key arguments in Kant’s “The Critique of Pure Reason.” Lectures take on the style of Professor Burge talking about things that seem highly disconnected until everything comes full circle as you study for your midterm. It is very difficult to sit and devote your full attention to taking notes for 2 hours, hanging on every last word. It is a task with huge cognitive load and the active listening/trying to figure out how to organize concepts in your notes is very difficult. You will find that you and your peers will often take different things from lectures. It is so important to make friends in this class, go to office hours, and come equipped with questions for discussion section. There is no homework! You read “The Critique of Pure Reason” on your own time as well as assigned passages, you don’t really talk about the book in lecture/discussion until the last 3 weeks where you review central arguments. It is not an easy book, but you can get by just reading what is assigned. For the midterm, Professor Burge assigns 9 questions for you to prep/memorize beforehand and then during the midterm he gives you 5 and you pick 3. It is similar for the final except you prep 12-18 questions, he gives you 4, and you pick 3 (all the midterm questions are fair game as well). The writing takes up the full 2 hour period for the midterm & final. The expectation is you spend about 45 minutes per question, and yes, there is that much content to cover in answering the questions. MY SUGGESTION: be organized in your notes from the start. All that said, yes this course is really hard, but I’ve loved every minute of it. It’s a masochistic kind of joy. There’s not much comparable to when you ***finally*** get it. I would 100% take it again.
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