As someone who has had no philosophy experience ever and was taking this as a last resort GE as this was the only one that fit in my schedule, I was super nervous going into this class after reading these reviews. But I can wholeheartedly say this class was not that bad at all. In fact I think I enjoyed it.

The only workload for this class in the midterm and final, which is super nice. You only need to get a passing grade on 3/5 hw assignments, so once you do three you are done, and they are super easy. Also the readings are chill, they are short and I mostly skimmed because the professor would explain them in class and they didn't help much on the papers anyways.

The key to getting an A in this class is just putting the effort. Some students said the content was hard to grasp, but personally I didn't think so. The problem I think is that the professor has a pretty monotone voice, and it's easy to zone out at times and then you just get completely lost. Additionally, since he doesn't use slides and we usually just follow along on a worksheet, it can be hard at times to stay engaged. But I would do what a lot of people wouldn't: TAKE STELLAR NOTES. A lot of people didn't go to lecture, but I would go to every single one. I would literally just write down the important stuff he says in class, and my notebook became basically a textbook on the class. When the midterm prompts dropped, I literally had all the answers written down in my notebook and just turned it into an essay. (Oh btw, he tends to go on long tangents during lecture when philosophy majors ask random questions, you can zone out then.)

Additionally, I went to office hours. THIS IS KEY! My TA got sick and the professor was our TA for majority of the quarter, and only then did I realize how helpful it is to actually talk through the material with him. You only really need to go like the week of your midterm and final, but I went pretty often (at least once a week) because the professor is really kind and will genuinely try to explain things to the best of his ability if you don't understand. BUT DURING OFFICE HOURS THE TAS AND PROFESSOR WILL BASICALLY TELL YOU EXACTLY WHAT NEEDS TO BE ON YOUR PAPERS!! So basically I wrote a rough draft out from my notes alone, asked clarifying questions on it at office hours (you can literally show them your paper), fixed the things they commented on, and turned them in.

So by 1) going to class 2) taking good notes and 3) religiously going to office hours I got an A on both papers and ended with an A in a class I thought I was gonna fail. And I would honestly take another class with this professor again, I wish he would just change his grading a little because the 50% midterm 50% final grading scheme is a little stressful. But other than that, trust me, IT IS DOABLE!

I took this class winter quarter with James as my ta. James was really helpful when I attended the only three discussions i did, since they weren't mandatory, but for the ones i went to he explained the material very well and gave us great information to use for the midterm and final. the class is graded so that half of your grade relies on your midterm and the other half relies on the final. honestly i thought i wasn't going to do so great in this class, but James was a very kind grader. even if i literally failed to answer the question or forgot to provide examples, he only marked me off one point. i probably wouldn't be so happy with this class if i had a different ta though. his concepts were kind of confusing at times but he holds plenty of office hours for questions, and does his best to answer any questions. i kind of felt bad because everyone in my class pestered him on day one with questions after seeing his bruin walk reviews, asking how he was going to change his teaching style or what he was going to do differently, but he just said he'd want to get better with using canvas because he didn't really know what they were asking. he's so adorable and has the best accent, i really liked having him as a professor because his lectures were usually easy to follow. sometimes he would get a bit repetitive or take up all clasd time to answer obscure questions that the philosophy majors would ask, but overall good professor in terms of clarity & easiness. i just feel like i didn't really gain anything from this class, other than being able to read works of past philosophers which was cool, i didn't really gain much. hope this helps

I’m a philosophy major and I regret taking this class. Unclear lectures take a very basic argument from week 1 and convolute it endlessly until week 10. The final is literally about a one-sentence argument from week ONE. Somehow still do poorly on each paper because its totally subjective how the prof and TA’s want to interpret your answers. If you can – avoid Jae won as TA. SUPER low workload if you want easy class but not fun to read and the texts are meaningless metaphysical garbage that just interpret the first mediation in different ways.

professor hsu is such a nice guy and really tries to help students understand the material. this class has an awful grading scheme of 50% midterm essay 50% final essay, and you have to complete 3 short writing assignments out of 5 (satisfactorily, so just don’t turn in nonsense basically) in order to not fail the class (they don’t count for points you just get failed if you don’t do it). also no participation required and he records audio or video and audio for all classes!!! especially for a philosophy professor, he’s pretty clear in his lectures. he does his best to explain and re-explain and re-explain again the most convoluted texts so that people will understand them. it takes a minute to adjust to the philosophy mindset and the content of the class can be difficult. however, if you just attend all the lectures and follow along with his explanations and analyses of the text, he’s pretty good as a lecturer. the midterm and final questions are also pretty much exactly what we discuss in class so having gone to class, you can formulate a solid answer. plus, the exams are a 4-6 page paper and you answer 2 different questions in the paper so it’s not long at all. also the reading is like maybe 2 short readings a week, and he really takes his time and addresses all student questions before moving on to the next topic so you get a lot of time to process the ideas presented. people just get really dramatic over philosophy courses because it’s a different way of looking at reading and writing, and because the texts can be difficult. just ride it out, listen to what the prof says, and you’ll start to understand it. if reading and writing really isn’t your strong suit then maybe avoid this class, there are philosophy classes with easier content (look for an ethics class maybe). but overall not bad and he’s absolutely so sweet and patient, one of my favorite profs teaching an unfortunately very difficult intro GE course

Professor Hsu I think is a well-intentioned and very intelligent professor, but I think his lectures were quite confusing. I really enjoyed the readings for this course and felt the homework assignments weren't too bad, but the lectures simply were not engaging. I think he is often very long-winded, and finds it difficult to state things in a concise manner. The midterm and final are the only assignments that count toward your grade, and they were both graded more strictly than I was expecting. Both papers are essentially two essays, which have multiple questions each. The homework assignments are meant to be practice for the midterm and finals as well.

Professor Hsu is an excellent teacher who is able to break down seemingly difficult logical arguments to something even I could understand. Philosophy is all about talking through the concepts so I definitely recommend going to his or your TA's office hours. Admittedly, an 8:00 am philosophy class is difficult to stay awake in, but the class is not hard as long as you keep up with readings (which are short). I really enjoyed my time in his class which honestly changed the way I look at the world. Radical skepticism is a really interesting concept if you actually give time to think about it. This class almost made me pick up a philosophy minor...

This review is for PHILOS 7 with Dr. Hsu. I would NOT recommend this class if you're not a Philosophy major. There are plenty of other GE's that fulfill this same requirement and are much more clear and engaging than Philos 7. Dr. Hsu doesn't use slides in his lectures, so there's no coherent idea of what you're learning each day. There is very little structure to the class website, so you never really know what's going on. We also had a technical problem for the ENTIRE quarter so there were no Bruincasts of the lectures. I'm honestly shocked I got the grade I did, and most of it is due to opting out of the final because of COVID19.

If you do decide to take this course, make sure you participate as much as possible in discussion and try to go to your TA's office hours at least once. This is less about learning and more about the grade bump they offer some students in light of "excellent contributions" in discussion.

TLDR: Don't take this class, and if you do, make sure your TA knows your name.

Pros:
- The only real "work" for this class are two essays: your midterm and final respectively. Nothing else really matters for your grade. However, while this makes day-to-day work easy, it's a lot more pressure and you have little to pad your grade should you bomb either.
- My TA (Saraliza Anzaldua) was extremely helpful and engaging. I didn't go to lecture, but she covered what was talked about in lecture and contributed to a greater understanding of the material covered.
- You don't really need to go to class. Obviously, it makes things harder, but going to lecture didn't really help me. This is good, but I'll explain more about why lecture didn't help below.

Cons:
- Lecture was EXTREMELY boring. Hsu explains concepts in a convoluted, drawn-out manner, making concepts even harder to understand at times. He's also an extremely boring lecturer. He would also pause for questions halfway through the class, and with it being philosophy, people would begin to just spout off. Hsu never stopped them, either, even though he should. If you do go to lecture, I advise just tapping out whenever he takes questions -- you'll be better off this way. If anything, don't take this class as an 8am. Just don't.

Professor Hsu is a nice man and you can tell he's very passionate about the material. However, this is a very difficult class to take if you have no experience with philosophy whatsoever. The only things you do in the class are the midterm and final essays and the homework assignments. You only need to do three homework assignments and I was confused if that meant that you only needed to do three to get at least a C, but you shouldn't do all 5 because they'll only grade three of them. They aren't graded for accuracy, only for whether or not you gave them a fair shot.
The midterm and the final were the hard parts of this class for sure. I basically had to figure out how to write a philosophical essay which is different from anything I've ever done. Go to your TA's office hours and discussion sections because those were the most helpful things I did this quarter. I somehow came out with a decent enough grade but do not take this class if you have another choice.

Is this a hard class? Yes. Is the material extremely hard to wrap your head around sometimes? Definitely. This is definitely a class that is not for the faint of heart. But I really do think that Prof. Hsu did a good job teaching the material. He allowed us to ask questions in class and was often receptive to the ideas of students and would respond to them. (I must note that I also have a benefit of having some familiarity of the material going into this class and being a philosophy major who likes this kind of content, so keep that in mind).

I will warn you that the only two things that determine your letter grade are your midterm essays and final essays, with five homework assignments that aren't worth credit but you need to pass 3 to get a passing grade in the class. But honestly, if you stay on top of it and do the readings, you'll be fine. With that said, I can definitely see why if you're not into philosophy/majoring in it, this can be a ROUGH class.

Also, on a lighter note, don't take this class as an 8AM if you can avoid it. Prof. Hsu has a Bob Ross-type inflection to his voice that often lulled me to sleep in class, even if I found the material itself engaging.