Holden is crystal clear in his explanations - he is also one those professors who has the uncanny ability to anticipate the problems you are having. He can explain away any of the discrepancies between the material and your thoughts. He grades very fairly-his courses are difficult only because the material is difficult and he won't inflate grades

Concise and energetic lectures. Stimulated class discussion well. Humor is desert-dry in the way that only Brits can be. Not given to long, tangential forays like many Phil professors. One of the best the Phil department here has!

Don't take this class as a GE. I'm a phil major, and even I had a hard time fully getting what Holden was saying sometimes. Graded on 2 papers, and a final. TA grading is harsh if you get a bad one. Lots of reading. If you can keep up, it's manageable. Prof is super passionate/funny, but sometimes unclear. Fine class, difficult for a lower div tho

If you're not into PHIL- I wouldn't take this class. I think he is funny to PHIL majors, but I found his lectures bizarre. It's really hard to adjust to a PHIL class and learn how to write those papers if you are from basically any other major.

Take him. You won't regret!

Class was not too difficult, he posts all of the lecture notes online. I found him to be really unpleasant, so I stopped attending and still did fine. If you're not interested in philosophy you might find the content more challenging.