This class is confusing as hell! At first, it was really overwhelming because of the content, but once I started to do the readings and take notes in my own words, everything started to make sense. The concepts that these philosophers write about are actually really interesting. I love explaining different concepts like the brains in a vat thought experiment and mary in the black and white room to my friends, it's really cool stuff to think about. The problem with this class though is personally, I had to spend so much time trying to make sense of it. But honestly, once you pass that learning curve you will feel like a genius! So I definitely recommend taking this class it's super rewarding!

Also! I am selling copies of my notes I used for each reading and lecture. The information is in my own words, which I used to pass the huge learning curve with these concepts and ace the final! I got an A+, I never would have gotten that without spending countless hours trying to make sense of it. So I'm selling my notes for $20. Text me at **********. Trust me, you need these, it'll save you the many frustrating hours of trying to understand this shit. Plus, it'll be pretty funny watching your classmates struggle, while you know exactly what Normore is talking about.

There's a lot of hate for Normore on here, but in my opinion he's one of the best professors in the Philosophy department. The class has a ton of readings, but really, since your essays are only based on a single article or paper, you only need to really dig deep into a few of the class' subjects. Normore is definitely very unorganized, his lecture slides are at times unreadable, and he can go off on tangents. But, he's also kind of your classic college philosophy professor. I suggest going to his office hours, he's a really interesting guy to talk to.
In the end, the grade you get in Phil 7 is based almost entirely on your TA. My TA was a tough grader, and I ended up with a B+ because of it. My friend, on the other hand, did all the assignments two days before they were due and got an A because his TA barely even read the papers. But overall, for a philosophy GE, you could do worse than Phil 7.

DO NOT TAKE THE CLASS IF YOURE NOT GOOD AT ENGLISH. no, just dont take this class.
you get readings every week and quizes depending on your TA. i have not heard of a single student complimenting their TAs. MY TA, ERIC VINCENT, WAS HORRIBLE. If I am given a chance to reverse any of my choices in life, it would be to chang this to a P/NP. No, cancel that; it would be to drop it.
the material is interesting, i admit. BUT ITS VERY HARD TO UNDERSTAND.
as everyone else has mentioned, he is unorganized and his slides are useless pieces of shits.
but he is a sweet man....

i repeat... please dont take this class.....i want this class to have no enrollees, and diappear..

Professor Normore is a nice man who always has an open door to helping students. However, I would not recommend taking this class. The downsides of this class include that it is disorganized. The lecture slides are filled with errors and are often just large paragraphs from the readings. There is not a lot of work in the class (just several written assignments) and no midterm. However, it is very difficult to do well on these written assignments. The TA I had did not provide feedback on my papers until the end of the quarter, so I had no time to improve on my philosophy writing. The class also provides very little guidance on how to write a philosophy paper. If you have no experience in philosophy, you are doomed for failure in the essays. Overall, this class was pretty frustrating with content that was pretty difficult to understand. You should not take this class unless you have a deep interest in philosophy and/or prior experience in the subject.

Normore is a really nice, approachable guy with a good heart, but he is not an adequate professor. His slides are error-filled and difficult to follow. He goes off on side stories that are quite difficult to follow. It makes it difficult to know what you should write down and what you shouldn't. The TA I had was not very helpful with how to improve my papers and he didn't really know how to explain the material. This is overall a difficult course because of its disorganized nature and scatter brained instructors.

This class covers some very complex, hard-to-follow materials based off of very dense philosophical readings. Normore's lectures tend to be disorganized and usually are presented through error-filled power points. He's obviously an extremely intelligent professor who's a total master of the subject, but in order for him to be more effective, he needs to organize his lecture slides in a more logical manner and make them shorter and easier to read.

Selling: Descartes "Meditations, Objections, and Replies" with graded quizzes for $20
**********

This class was VERY hard to follow and do well in -- especially because the TA was very specific in grading without any explanation beforehand. Normore is good though, just make sure your TA isn't too bad and you ask questions.

Normore is clearly a sweet guy and definitely wants his students to do well. However, his lectures are confusing and disorganized (which he admits to). This class would be impossible without doing outside reading and talking to the T.A's.