John Morrison

Nothing except 1-2 readings every week (~60 pages each) and a 15-20 page essay at the end of the semester.

A midterm and final (open ended essays). Heavy reading throughout the semester that is impossible to keep up with.

Course grading is broken down by 3 equally weighted exams (30% each), and 10% for homework assignments. Homework is done via 4 software programs that come with the textbook, Language Proof & Logic, which allows a server at Stanford to grade the assignments (instead of the TAs having to grade them manually - great for them, not so much for the students). The software is terrible, in that it is not intuitive to navigate and quite buggy; print functions don't work, submissions often result in vague error messages, etc. Having to do the work then enter into and try to submit through these programs results in a huge time investment. You receive almost full credit just for submitting the file, even if it's wrong (8 out of 10 points), but if you want to learn the material in the course, the homework is extremely important to do correctly. I have no problem investing hours doing my homework, but do have a problem wasting time with bad software. Lastly, several of the more time consuming homework problems don't map to the material covered on exams, so are pretty much a time-consuming waste of time. The workload and level of difficulty ramp up significantly from the first exam to the last.

3 one page papers (35%) 1 five page paper (25%) Midterm (20%) Final (20%)

I took his perception course, and I would definitely recommend it! I am an undergraduate so naturally it was very challenging for me, but the way Morrison presents the material is very clear and straightforward. He is very sweet and funny, and the class is very enjoyable because it is so small and the readings are so engaging. He's really laid back about attendance, I had to miss a few classes for medical reasons and he didn't dock my grade. Overall it was a great class!

DO NOT. DO NOTTTTT TAKE THIS CLASS. I was a freshman when I took this class and I am psychology major now. I can honestly say this is the worst class I will probably take in my four years. It was so disorganized, confusing, and mind-numbingly boring. Granted, the curve was gracious. But in the end, that did not make up for the stress I went through before the midterm and final. Just don't do it. Don't. DO NOT.

I took this class to fulfill my QR requirement, and have no background in either philosophy, cs or math. After everything I had read on Culpa, I thought this intro class would be quite good, even enjoyable. Boy, was I mistaken. All other reviews notwithstanding, this professor clearly has absolutely no interest in teaching this course currently. This is a shame, as I had spoken directly to two of his previous students who raved about him, and can see where it would be interesting subject matter if I didn't have to literally teach it to myself with the help of a tutor (which I pay for out of my own pocket). The major problem is that Professor Morrison doesn't teach. He distributes slides before class, then posts the slides up on a projector and reads them, word for word, to the class. When he's done reading, class is over, which usually occurs about 40 minutes early. Class that's scheduled to last for 80 minutes usually ends in about 35-40 minutes. While many students might think it's great to get out early, I would prefer to actually be taught the material and the methods behind doing things like proofs, not have someone read me his slides verbatim then slip out when class is barely half over. He does ask before he concludes if anyone has any questions, but is generally met with blank stares, so takes this as meaning everyone magically absorbed the material he just read to the…

Very poor teacher. I think people like him solely because he's funny. Classes are disorganized and have no relationship to the readings we do. He offers minimal guidance on how to write a philosophy paper and no guidance on what's on the tests. You get tested on everything he says in class, NOT what's in the reading, so the best strategy is to NOT do the readings but instead write down everything he says and memorize it in time for the final. Also write a rough draft of your essays in time to have them reviewed by the TAs before they're due. If you can choose between Adam Blazej and Jake McNulty as TAs I recommend Adam because he's an easier essay grader and he gives out study guides for the midterms (however these study guides don't include EVERYTHING that will appear on the midterm.) I only attended Jake's recitation and he's a much better teacher than Prof Morrison, though. Grade received: A-

3 Exams, Homeworks Problems from the textbook which are due before each exam. Studying is very necessary but not extensive; for the midterms light studying 1-2 nights in advance (making notes out of the lecture notes + doing the HW problems & simpler practice problems) followed by cramming on the night of (doing & redoing practice problems) was good enough. All in all an easy workload, given the clarity of material.

3 one page single spaced papers; you summarize and make a short objection for one of the readings 1 theee-5 double spaced paper, comparing 2 philosophers' ideas 2 in-class exams (non-cumulative) that mostly on lecture material. Take good notes; this will help when studying!