First and foremost, I have to say that Professor Normore is extremely caring and accommodating, which I believe makes up for his admitted disorganization. Definitely ask questions during office hours - he is very willing to help and is easier to follow then.

I had some extremely difficult circumstances and I don't know what I would have done if Normore had not been so willing to accommodate my situation. Honestly, he deserves a medal for his efforts. He wrote four different finals (with mine being the fourth) because he knew some students would not be able to make the designated time.

Admittedly, lectures are not always focused enough to be totally helpful, and readings are often tedious. Discussion sections were key for me, as were online summaries. I will say that Normore did a lot to try to mitigate the confusion by the end of the term... he was able to more adequately summarize the main points of the class and the questions asked on the final were very reasonable!

With the nature of this class, definitely think about the relationships between the philosophers and the slow development of a concept of the mind. I think it's pretty overwhelming to understand at first, but I actually understood what Normore was doing by the end of the term. It's not great, but I think I actually benefited from not really learning the material until the very end because the direction of the class was so much clearer.

So, this class can take a lot of effort, but if you approach it the right way, it's actually extremely manageable. The 100-word homework assignments are relatively straightforward as are quizzes (though these depend on your TA), but they don't totally prepare you to write the 1000-1200 word essay. Definitely ask questions for that! Review sessions and having guided questions for the final study guide are definitely necessary to succeed for the final, unless you are willing to put in hours and hours to figure it all out yourself.

Overall the breakdown of the class was:
Best 3 out of 5 quick quizzes for 3% each = 9%
Best 3 out of 5 "Brown" 100-word assignments for 5% each = 15%
Outline of essay = 11%
Essay = 30%
Final = 35%

All in all, it's a doable class as long as you know what you're in for. There is a light at the end of the tunnel!! Also, it's great that he provides all the materials for us poor college students.

The material in this class is confusing, and even more so if you don't keep up with the readings. How well you do really depends on your TA (shoutout to Jen for being the literal best). Professor Normore is super nice but very unorganized. His slides have typos and long blocks of text, and the 2 hour lectures make it hard to stay engaged the whole time.
He does post recordings of his lectures online, so you don't necessarily have to go to lecture every week.
If you take this class, I recommend taking notes according to the readings instead of according to the lectures/weeks. There's no midterm but the final is all based off of the readings in the course.
Also, go to the review sessions that the TAs hold at the end of the quarter!! They're super helpful.
Overall, not the best class/professor, but pretty interesting. It's definitely possible to get an A, just make sure you visit office hours and keep up with the material. Do that and you should be pretty solid.

He was definitely very disorganized and had slides that were either sparse or had an extremely long quote copy-pasted on one slide. It was often difficult to keep up with whatever he was saying, as he'd go on a bunch of tangents that were difficult to follow. However, I did appreciate that he was always willing to answer questions during the break in between the lectures and after lectures, and much of those quick discussions helped me understand what was going on in lecture and in the readings in general. He's very approachable and he likes to talk about philosophy (apparently so much so that when he was in office hours he forgot about our lecture he was supposed to teach right after those office hours and arrived 15 minutes late).
It is pretty difficult to grasp what's being said in lecture, because Normore is disorganized during lecture and because the topics are already somewhat difficult on their own. However, I did like the class because the topics that we discussed were interesting and because Prof Normore seemed very chill and interested in answering questions about the subject, whether it be during office hours or after lecture.

Normore's lectures are extremely hard to follow and after week 2, I stopped going to class. One good thing about him is that he puts up the slides and the audio, which allowed me to pause and repeat his words because he often goes on tangents that are hard to follow. I was pretty confused on a lot of topics/readings and often found myself googling these topics for clarification. I also emailed my TA A LOT for clarification on many topics and even he got confused on some of the topics. One thing that helped me was that all the TA's held reviews for the final and I went to a majority of them which helped me on my final. All in all, if you aren't interested in philosophy, be prepared to work real hard for a good grade. And pray that you get a good TA that knows what they are doing!

Powerpoints were poorly designed, often full of multiple typos and excessively long sentences, rendering them not only confusing, but also detrimental in conducting a successful lecture. Because of this, Normore can neither present nor explain the topic effectively, and goes on increasingly random tangents that only succeed in convincing students to ditch class. Overall, Normore fails in captivating even the most interested students, and only managing to confuse those who ultimately bother to listen.

A good TA will save your life. I loved Piera--wouldnt have gotten an a without her.

It was an honor being taught by a ex-Princeton Professor of Philosophy! Professor Calvin Normore is an encyclopedia of philosophical knowledge. Simply put, he is a genius. Although he's unorganized (he even admits to this), and the content of this course is quite dense and abstract, Professor Normore is cool and calm enough to warrant his disorganization(and the often difficult moments of trying to grasp what it is we're even talking about). Weekly research papers to be read, best 3 of 5 brown assignments (<100 words), best 3 of 5 quizzes, research outline, research paper, and a final exam.

Ah, Normore. He is an interesting man, that is for sure. In lecture he will ramble on and on to the point where everyone will stop paying attention and his original point is completely lost, but if you pay attention and really try to understand what he is saying, you might just learn something profound. That, or you will end up arguing with your friend for hours about whether we could be brains in vats and get a headache. Either way.

This class isn't easy nor great. The course readings (as well as Normore himself) are often unclear and difficult to understand. If you want to succeed, going to the office hours of both your TA and Normore is a safe bet. Unlike during lecture, Normore has a very clear mind and great presence in office hours. When teaching, his slides are a mess and it seems like hes just winging everything.

There are some pretty interesting questions about the mind that this class poses, but the discourse surrounding it is BS. It seems like all of these philosophers just go in circles about what they believe, and never reach any conclusion at all. The questions are basically Buddhist Koan riddles except instead of finding peace and enlightenment you'll just waste your time arguing with another person for hours and get nothing accomplished. In my opinion, Philosophy is a big waste of time.

But if you like to sit around all day thinking about and arguing about those sorts of things, you'll probably enjoy Philosophy 7.

First of all, I just took the final for this class today and I felt pretty good about it, but I am still not sure what my final grade will be because the grade scale is as follows:
15% Brown Assignments (5 in total) 2 worst grades are dropped
9% Quizzes (5 in total) 2 worst grades dropped
11% Research Plan
30% Essay
35% Final Exam which is 60% free response and 40% multiple choice
I personally did well on all quizzes and Brown assignments as well as the research plan, but I am now waiting for the other 65% of my grade.
Overall, professor Normore can be a bit confusing at first, but he really does want his students to understand the material. It is crucial for you to attend your discussion because not only is the TA in charge of your grade, but at least the TA's I talked to were very helpful. They would break down the passages and answer any question regardless of how "dumb" you think it may be. It is also very important that you ask questions and attend office hours. This material and the course is challenging, so always reach out to your TA and classmates for help. I had a study group I met up with throughout the quarter, and it was effective in the way that we all discussed our concerns and clarified each other's concerns. You must complete the readings ahead of time in order to understand lecture and the brown assignments!! Quizzes vary on format depending on your TA, but if you attend section, you will be fine.
Personally, this class was challenging, but I really did enjoy it. Eventually, I feel that as I understood the material over time, the more I understood Professor Normore, and was fascinated by his lectures. This class definitely requires some extra work and dedication, but it was worth it in the end.

This class was somewhat confusing at first. However, once I started paying more attention to what Normore said during lectures than what was on the slides it started making sense. He is somewhat disorganized in terms of lecture but he explains things in a very understandable way. A lot of the grading is done by the T.A. so that is kind of a big factoring terms of grades on quizzes and homework. Professor Normore is very intelligent and somewhat funny so he made class enjoyable each and every day I went. Some have called him the next Aquinas, but I feel that he is more on the level of Plato. *insert goat emoji*