PHIL C1010

i want to start by saying i found out she taught us the incorrect material for this course, after seeing a friend's material from a previous semester taught by someone else. this is not an intro course at all btw, but the material is doable. however, she cannot teach. a lot of tangents and switiching subjects, unclear with what was going on in the class 90 percent of the time. i dont recomment this class. although you'llprobably end up with a fine grade. in person miditerm and final along with two papers.

two papers (go talk to him about your paper idea before you write it) and one final. If you take good notes in class and study a little, you'll be fine.

15-20ish page readings for each week that can be skimmed over. 3 non-cumulative exams, strictly graded.

There is very little workload during the semester other than the textbook readings prior to class which could range from 1-3 hours depending on the week. The papers took inordinate amounts of time despite their brief nature and were extremely difficult (for me at least). The final and midterm, however, were take home and group work and relatively easy and stress free.

TA for Akeel Bilgrami's Fall 2002 Methods and Problems.Complacent and Inept. Grading a midterm and a final was an overwhelming task for this guy. Columbia must be desperate. If you wind up with him as a TA, you will have to hold his little hand and do his job for him, because he just won't.

The workload is not bad at all--the readings are always short and manageable, but still interesting. 3 reading outlines, 3 short discussion papers, 1 final paper, 15 mins offiice hours appointment. They don't take long at all and the grading is very reasonable--100s are feasible. I probably spent, averaged across the assignments, 4 hours per week on this class (more on some weeks, less on others) plus in-person class time.

The reviews are pretty accurate, Berofsky likes to mumble so sit up front to prevent yourself from dozing. Also, participate!!! Our class was partially brain dead and there were maybe two or three people that would ask questions or answer Berofsky's. If you engage in the class then it becomes more interesting. That said Berofsky knows his shit. He is THOROUGH and if you want to learn alot then take this class. It was definetly worth it, and he is an extremely nice guy. Some of the readings are difficult so it pays to read them before the lecture and ask questions. Take good notes, you will need them for the final!

Akeel Bilgrami is one of the most fascinating and passionate professors I have had at Columbia. This was the first philosophy class I'd ever taken, and I really enjoyed the way he presented it. It was essentially a survey course on important topics throughout philosophy, essential philosophers' writings on Values, Freedom, Philosophy of Language, etc. The syllabus was extremely poorly defined, and he did a terrible job of even sticking to that. Out of the 6 proposed topics we had to cover, we covered about 4. He'd walk into class 10 minutes late for every class, and end his lectures abruptly, but what happened in those 60 mins was oftentimes nothing short of magic. His previous theater background can clearly be seen in the way he talks and carries himself. He would walk through concepts that seemed impossible to understand in the readings very slowly and carefully, repeatedly checking with the students if they were understanding each concept before he proceeded to the next one. He would often present long stories from his life (which always related to the philosophical topic at hand) with a gentle, dry sense of humor, which I always enjoyed. I looked forward to going to each lecture because of the way he would just capture the entire class' attention when he was in front of it. That being said, he can be quite blunt with students. If you ask a question, he will try to answer i…

I was very excited for this course going in, and I was very overwhelmed at first. It is definitely a baptism by fire, and even as someone who was very interested and passionate about philosophy, as well as someone who did all the textbook and supplemental readings prior to class, I was lost probably 75-90% of the time. Additionally the papers were very difficult for me to write having never written a philosophical paper before (the style and form are very different). This often left me very stressed and I ended up spending inordinate amounts of time in the preceding days to the deadline. Despite these factors, however, Justin was a fascinating and engaging lecturer. He was a joy to listen to even when I had no clue what he was talking about. And, by the end of the course I had learned practically all of the content and more, as well as I felt like a much more competent philosopher in terms of conversation and writing.

Great class, great professor. Jenn is funny, engaging, and very knowledgeable. A good introduction to philosophical topics and methods for beginners (it is challenging at times--I'm thinking of you Russell--so it's also appropriate if you have a bit of background in philosophy already). A really enjoyable class, I really highly recommend. I would also take any class with Jenn again, no matter the subject!