The class was fairly interesting but got kind of repetitive as the year went on. It was a nice break from my science-heavy schedule, but wasn't really great or bad otherwise. Ott tried to get everyone to participate in class but with 100+ students, that wasn't necessarily the case. I did most of the readings, save a few really long ones, and found the tests not too hard. The papers were graded pretty harshly but writing them was actually one of the most interesting parts of the class as you really got to explore your own views. Going to office hours for the papers as well as submitting a rough draft was very helpful.

This class was pretty interesting overall. Lectures were a bit dry at times, mostly because it was repetitive if you read. I worked my butt off in this class, studied hard, read everything, and spent countless hours on my drafts and papers. I ended up with a B in the class which, considering the time I put into it was pretty disappointing. Needless to say, grading is rough. It's all relative to the rest of the students in the class so as a first year competing with second and third years, not the best for grading. It's an interesting class worth taking as long as you're willing to work very hard and accept a mediocre grade.

Overall, this class shouldn't have been very hard, but it was! Grading is pretty tough on assignments, lectures aren't very engaging, although Ott is a nice and approachable guy. If you take this class do not take it with Garland as a TA, he is a very harsh grader. Instead take it with Boese who was super helpful and goes over exactly how to review for the tests!

If this is your first philosophy course, your brain might get screwed around a little in the first few weeks. The readings were mostly very easy and manageable; around 35 pages a week. Lectures were dry and professor Ott is a little awkward. Lectures are also repetitive and unnecessary if you can understand the points of the readings. Weekly paragraph responses, two papers, a midterm, and a final. Still easy and can be fun to see how different views of life interact.

Take this class if you want to be severely depressed and confused at the same time. There isn't a lot of work (hardly any), but the mid-term is tricky and everything depends on your TA and the paper is graded horribly. I went to office hours and changed my paper for my TA's preferences and did horrible. The subject matter is extremely repetitive as well. Essentially, everything depends on your TA, which I was unfortunate there.