The topics and ideas in this class were FASCINATING. Greenberg was a fantastic lecture and really managed to break down complex philosophical concepts to make them more understandable. The only problem I encountered with this class is that your entire grade is based off of essays that are super subjective and severely limited by word count (Greenberg even asks you don't write sentences over a certain word count). I consider myself a strong writer and managed to pull off an A, but I was definitely unsure of what my final grade would be throughout the quarter. My TA, John Abughattas, was fantastic when it came to talking through ideas expressed in class and facilitating further discussion, but the way he graded essays was questionable at times to me (this might just be how I feel about philosophy essays in general though, so no hard feelings). It was definitely frustrating to be graded on such subjective topics, especially because we were often encouraged to write about what we personally believed, not what previous philosophers thought. Talking to other people, if your writing style didn't click with your TA, it didn't seem like there was much you could do to improve your scores, especially since TA's refused to read/comment on essays before submission (which is understandable, I just wish they offered some way to get better feedback). Overall, if you know you are a strong writer I recommend this class, as a lot of the ideas introduced in it have stuck with me even until today, but if you know you struggle with writing I might suggest looking for another course or prof.

As long as you attend lectures and review the handouts the professor gives you, the in-class essays are kind of a breeze. Towards the end of the class, I just started skimming through the readings since I found that the lectures were way more important to learning the material. I think the easiest way to get a good grade in the class is by going to office hours. I went to almost every office hour with the TA and the professor, and I found that by asking questions and listening to other people's questions, I learned way more. Also, Professor Greenberg and my TA Will are both super interesting people, which made conversations much more engaging. As for the actual philosophical content of the class, I thought it was interesting enough, but it was also a little bit of a struggle staying engaged and awake during lectures (which isn't the professor's fault by any means). The no-phones rule definitely contributed to my drowsiness, but at the end of the day, I think that was for the best. At the end of the day, I think this class is a classic you get what you put in: if you don't put in effort into learning the material, you obviously won't do well on the essays since it literally tests your knowledge on how well you know the material. Make sure you go to your TA's office hours before the essay to ask questions on material you still don't fully understand or potential questions that might appear on the essay, since they are literally the one grading your essay.

Prof. Greenberg is a nice guy who was very accommodating during the pandemic. There were 6 homework assignments that mostly consisted of building different "circuits" and an extra credit paper one could write for up to 10% of your grade. You are able to work with a small group on the homework assignments which is cool because if you have a good group, you'll have a good support network for asking questions and getting the homework done. If you are someone who enjoys or is good at symbolic logic, then this class will be pretty straightforward and I recommend taking it. If not, this class could potentially be pretty difficult as it is all about conceptualizing coding/logic gates into different circuits. Also, the professor made his own website and wrote his own book for the class which are both pretty amazing and easy to follow.

I took Philos 7 as a GE, and while I liked the class, it’s definitely changed a lot from past reviews. We had three in-class written exams, all of them closed-book. Attendance was not mandatory. You actually had to understand the topics, unlike some other GEs. It definitely isn’t an easy GE. Professor Greenberg also assigned a lot of readings. Honestly, after doing the first couple, I realized they weren’t as essential as lecture, so I stopped doing them. It didn’t make much of a difference.

In lecture, the TAs hand out flyers that basically summarize the entire class. Everything you need to know is on them, but Professor Greenberg kind of gatekeeps them by only handing them out in person and not posting them on Canvas. It’s annoying, but I guess it does a good job of making people go to class. The content is really interesting, and Greenberg is super knowledgeable, but the lectures can get long and tiring. I’m not exactly sure why, but I often found myself counting seconds. Maybe it’s because we aren’t allowed to use technology and I’m addicted, but I digress.

My TA was barely present during discussion, but when she was she was pretty helpful in breaking down the concepts and clarifying what she was looking for in the exams. I also think she just gave everyone a 100/100 in participation since she missed most discussions. She did not take attendance.

Overall, if you’re looking for an easy GE, there are probably better options out there. But if the class seems interesting to you and you actually want to learn more about philosophy, I’d take it. It was genuinely interesting to learn the different views of the mind and how to think like a philosopher.

Great teacher! Complicated topics, but he covered it well!

This was one of the first classes I took at UCLA, and I loved it! The three exams were a little bit scary, but if you pay attention in lectures and really work to understand the reading you can score well. This class is not an easy A but an A will be easy to get if you make sure you fully understand the readings and lectures. The class content is really interesting.

I would not recommend this class. The professor does not allow note-taking on the computer- only handwritten notes, which I do not believe benefits the class overall. I also felt there were grading differences that varied by TA. From what I heard from my friends in different sections, the discussion sections were structured differently by each TA. I wish that there were more structure and the opportunity to gauge your ability to write philosophical papers before the exam. If you are looking for an easy GE, as the prof said on the first day of class, this may not be the best option for you.

Professor Greenberg was an interesting enough lecturer, and it seemed like he really cared about the topic. Handouts pertaining to each lecture were distributed at the beginning of each class. They were NOT posted online, nor were the lecture slides. The lectures were also not recorded to enforce “mandatory” attendance but there was no other penalty if you didn’t show up. All readings were online on Greenberg’s own website, no textbook necessary. There were 3 written exams, one for each unit, and extra office hours were offered beforehand. I never went to Greenberg’s office hours and relied more on my TA, Seungtaek, who was awesome and explained the concepts very well. I took this class as a major requirement but I would recommend it as a GE as well. Fun time.