Pierre Force

I'm not particularly interested in French history, but I found the content accessible and engaging. He uses history books primarily with a few primary texts (some of which are literature). For a graduate level class, the content was wide in range which I appreciated. If you need a class that's geographically/temporally removed from your primary interest, you shouldn't be intimated by the fact its a graduate student class.

This was one of the worst classes I've taken at Columbia. Prof Force spends the entirety of the class going over what was said in the texts we supposedly read. Not only did this make for incredibly boring lectures, it also encouraged us not to bother with the hundreds of pages of dense philosophical texts (why bother reading them, if he'll tell us what's important anyways?) --which of course makes his lectures all the less interesting. There was never any sense that we should, say, care about what these authors had to say, beyond simply being able to regurgitate Force's ideas for the papers and exams. He is fairly specific in what he wants to hear, and doesn't encourage much independent thought. Definitely look elsewhere if you're hoping to actually learn something and be interested in the material.

Easy CC teacher, which is extremely hard to find. Force gives smaller reading selections than most other professors, which is pretty nice. Class consists of passage analysis around the important themes of the book. Force has a clear grasp of the philosophy in each book, but rarely elaborates on more than the basic prinicples. Paper topics aren't too focused, but they are definately managable. The midterm and final are basically a review of the passages analyzed in class. Easy, enjoyable, and recommended professor.

This is quite a fun class. Moliere's plays are a quick and fun read. Although you don't have to talk in class, everyone reads aloud from the plays making it more interactive. Prof. Force is quite easygoing and can be quite entertaining at times while acting out parts.

This course presented writing tips for a variety of genres: cover letters, prospecti, articles, conference papers, and dissertation chapters.

Amazing. The readings aren't as dense as other graduate classes and I don't think Force minds when students read what they want to (and skim what they don't). It has a final paper like any other history seminar and everyone presents on the readings once. I think he's very generous with grading as long as you show a little effort.

A truly wonderful professor! He takes a syllabus of sometimes complex and confusing major works of French philosophy and breaks them down very well. The works are well-chosen to be in conversation with one another and his enthusiasm encourages participation by those students who have bothered to do the reading. His grading is fair and straightforward, as are his expectations. He cares about each of his students and that everyone engages with the readings, even when they are long and dry. The reading can be a bit heavy and complex, but his expectations are overall realistic and you will come away from the class with a great background in the overarching themes of French philosophy. Recommended!

Interesting man. He tries to be somewhat entertain and I personally appreciated his efforts especially with such dry material. He does a pretty thorough job of explaining the important themes of the book. Pretty easy class

Pierre Force is a very knowledgeable professor. He clearly knows these philosophers really really well, and as the chair of the French department, he also knows Columbia students really well. Thus he did an extremely good job of bridging the gap between what the students got from the text, and what the texts were actually about. I really liked how he explained the complicated nuances which were clearly over everyone's heads (either because they didn't do the reading at all, their French wasn't that great or because complicated old French is just plain hard for anyone). He would do a close reading of like two sentences for an hour and keep it interesting and relevant, which made me realize how rich these texts are, how great a syllabus this is, and how much is lost on me when I read this stuff on my own. He's extremely professional - in a good and bad way. He's really impersonal. He barely learns anyone's names. It's all business, no joking. And he's really abrupt in beginning and ending class. It doesn't seem like he has much of a desire to be there, but he gets the job done. That said, he's a very generous grader, and doesn't penalize you for bad grammar or anything like that. He definitely knows the texts through and through (way more than any undergrad will ever know), so for him there is definitely a right and wrong answer. His questions are straightforward and your grade…

Do not take this class if you have any interest in contemporary civilization. You won't learn anything more than you could learn from leafing through a textbook for a few hours.