Professor
Gavin Lawrence
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Most Helpful Review
Winter 2024 - i got an incredible grade in this class and that is ALL thanks to my genuinely incredible TA. the professor, although kind and well-meaning, leads a disorganized and confusing class full of tangents. the class itself serves basically as a summary of plato's republic (10 books = 10 weeks), and your grade is entirely based on a take-home essay (45%) midterm, in person essay final (50%), and discussion (5%). lectures are recorded thankfully! this class stressed me out a lot bc it's so much content to memorize, but i did find value in reading republic and learning philosophy for the first time. that being said, the grading scheme is so risky and i just got really lucky with an angel TA
Winter 2024 - i got an incredible grade in this class and that is ALL thanks to my genuinely incredible TA. the professor, although kind and well-meaning, leads a disorganized and confusing class full of tangents. the class itself serves basically as a summary of plato's republic (10 books = 10 weeks), and your grade is entirely based on a take-home essay (45%) midterm, in person essay final (50%), and discussion (5%). lectures are recorded thankfully! this class stressed me out a lot bc it's so much content to memorize, but i did find value in reading republic and learning philosophy for the first time. that being said, the grading scheme is so risky and i just got really lucky with an angel TA
Most Helpful Review
Winter 2016 - I loved political philosophy. We studied philosophers all the way from Aristotle to Rousseau and Locke. I found the content really easy, and very engaging. The lectures were boring, but you can just podcast all of them. Started considering Philosophy as a second major after taking class. Selling all books. Text at **********
Winter 2016 - I loved political philosophy. We studied philosophers all the way from Aristotle to Rousseau and Locke. I found the content really easy, and very engaging. The lectures were boring, but you can just podcast all of them. Started considering Philosophy as a second major after taking class. Selling all books. Text at **********
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Most Helpful Review
I got a B+ but I didn't expect it since I got a B- on my essay which was 40 percent. So, it is worth it to study hard for the final. For the final, I listened to his lectures on the podcast while walking at the park. Good times lol! I thought the lectures were pretty interesting but sometimes missing one word or getting distracted in one instance will get you lost in what he is saying. I listened to the podcast for each lecture twice because i never went to discussion so that helped me. However, If you need an elaboration on what Lawrence says, then you should go to discussion. Also, use sparknotes.
I got a B+ but I didn't expect it since I got a B- on my essay which was 40 percent. So, it is worth it to study hard for the final. For the final, I listened to his lectures on the podcast while walking at the park. Good times lol! I thought the lectures were pretty interesting but sometimes missing one word or getting distracted in one instance will get you lost in what he is saying. I listened to the podcast for each lecture twice because i never went to discussion so that helped me. However, If you need an elaboration on what Lawrence says, then you should go to discussion. Also, use sparknotes.
Most Helpful Review
This was the one of most boring classes I have ever taken. Few attended lecture and those who did easily fell asleep. Lectures were disorganized. Many of the reviews tend to praise Lawrence, so perhaps in other classes he is more interesting? I know he mentioned this was his first time teaching the Writing II variant of Philosophy 22. Also, TAs graded the essays rather strictly, but without going through HOW to write a philosophical analysis. Not the class to take for a GE.
This was the one of most boring classes I have ever taken. Few attended lecture and those who did easily fell asleep. Lectures were disorganized. Many of the reviews tend to praise Lawrence, so perhaps in other classes he is more interesting? I know he mentioned this was his first time teaching the Writing II variant of Philosophy 22. Also, TAs graded the essays rather strictly, but without going through HOW to write a philosophical analysis. Not the class to take for a GE.
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Most Helpful Review
Great teacher. He really cares about the students. Know that he is in his office a lot of the time. I stopped by his office several times, even randomly, and he was always there and always quick to invite me inside to sit down on his couch, all around which are giant stacks of papers and books. My advice is to not ask him questions during class, but instead either wait until after class or go to his office. He's very talkative and will explain anything. The class is graded by 2 papers. I personally don't think it's necessary to read all of the readings in this class in order to get an A. You only need to read the stuff that you're writing the papers on. Also, for greek philosophy, there's no need to buy a book. Just get the readings online. It's all free. An interesting thing about this teacher is he seems very interested in philosophy of language. He has a habit of explaining every philosophical problem as a miscommunication of language. Anyway, a pretty rational guy, I'd say. Very nice. A couple times I walked with him out of the class while he explained a point about Plato or Aristotle. Not every professor is this nice!
Great teacher. He really cares about the students. Know that he is in his office a lot of the time. I stopped by his office several times, even randomly, and he was always there and always quick to invite me inside to sit down on his couch, all around which are giant stacks of papers and books. My advice is to not ask him questions during class, but instead either wait until after class or go to his office. He's very talkative and will explain anything. The class is graded by 2 papers. I personally don't think it's necessary to read all of the readings in this class in order to get an A. You only need to read the stuff that you're writing the papers on. Also, for greek philosophy, there's no need to buy a book. Just get the readings online. It's all free. An interesting thing about this teacher is he seems very interested in philosophy of language. He has a habit of explaining every philosophical problem as a miscommunication of language. Anyway, a pretty rational guy, I'd say. Very nice. A couple times I walked with him out of the class while he explained a point about Plato or Aristotle. Not every professor is this nice!
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