The philosophy of Spinoza.
4
UnitsOptional
Grading1, 2, 3
PasstimeNone
Level LimitLetters and science
CollegeDon't take this class for an easy GE. Zylstra is great, but the readings are mandatory and enforced by lecture quizzes. The course is graded heavily on three evenly-spaced non-cumulative exams. The TA's split up portions of the test to grade, which makes the course slightly unfair. If you have a good TA you'll be fine, but you need to work for it.
Professor Zylstra is an amazing person and lecturer. He clearly shows that he cares about what he is teaching and cares for the success of the students. With that said, this course is uninteresting and contains lots of reading. There are three exams (not cumulative), and one major writing assignment. As long as you do the readings you will be fine.
Professor Zylstra is such a fun guy. He is so charismatic and genuinely interested in the topics he teaches. He breaks down the dense readings very well and makes the subject matter very digestable. There are iclickers every class on the readings but they're usually very simple. We also had 3 non-cumulative exams which were pretty straightforward!
Prof Zylstra is awesome! The class content can be difficult and the readings can be dense, but his slides in class explain them well & thoroughly. Really interesting material if you like phil. Difficult class if you're inexperienced w/ it. 3 exams w/ mcq & 2 long answers. The one essay is graded tough, just like any writing is in PHIL.
On a weekly basis, the workload consists of a relatively short reading and sometimes a paragraph or peer review, graded for credit. Stephen is a great teacher and the tests are very easy if you use the study guide he provides and prepare.
Attendance in lecture & section mandatory. There are reading quizzes every day on iClickr, so you have to do the reading hw. The tests are 15mc and 2 frq, which are graded by the TAs. The TAs can be strict. You have to submit a very good paper (only 1 at the end of the quarter) to get an A on it.. Prof is nice and accesible outside of class.