From Medievals to Rationalists.
5
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.
Since the readings in the Phil class were quite difficult to understand, his lectures super concisely broke down arguments in the readings and made philosophy very approachable. However, essay grading in the philosophy department is kinda scuffed, so if you want an A, make sure you're fairly good at writing compared to your peers.
short iclicker quizzes every lecture, so make sure to read. papers were quite easy, I'm just terrible at writing. prof does talk a lot, but it's also philosophy sooo. TA Patrick was really helpful, when I asked for help with reviewing for the final, so I regret not asking for help for the midterm papers too. pretty fair course for a GE