I think this is a good class to fulfill the second writing requirement. Your grade is based on 3 papers. Professor Langsam is a good speaker, and lectures are enjoyable. Attendance is not checked, and while going to discussions is usually enough to grasp a good foundation on the material (to write a good essay,) I would still recommend going. It is not too hard to get an A, but it is important to get ahead of writing your essay. DO go to your TA's office hours to get help with essay writing if you struggle at all. The TAs are so passionate and helpful.

This introductory philosophy course was fairly average, meeting my expectations. The instructor demonstrated extensive knowledge and passion through standard note-taking lectures. While attendance is vital, especially for noting relevant material, there are no assignments apart from essays, making lecture notes crucial. While attendance is not required, there are no assignments apart from essays, making lecture notes crucial for writing essays.

Teaching Assistants, like James Reed, facilitated helpful discussions, offering simplified interpretations of lectures. I recommend him. Attendance in discussions may impact your grade.

My only complaint is the course's slight disorganization, evident in the delayed grade release. I anticipate an A or A-, but it's still up in the air.

For those seeking a relaxed course to fulfill their second writing requirement, I recommend it. Just ensure thorough note-taking, avoid procrastination on essays, and success in the course is achievable. #tCFF23

This was a good class! I took that class just to see what a UVA philosophy class would be like (and also to fulfill my second writing requirement), and I ended up liking it a lot more than I thought. The content was interesting and definitely thought-provoking, even if I'd never learned any of it before. I really liked the second unit, which was on morality and weighing out how much morality is good for living a good life. The readings were super reasonable too, like 20 total pages a week (about 10 pages per class).

Professor Langsam is just the loveliest old guy. He tells lots of jokes during lecture and makes lecture engaging even if he doesn't take questions through most of lecture. He does let students ask questions after he finishes each lecture topic though (he writes the lecture topics on the chalkboard; there aren't any online slides). Honestly the best part is the fact that he talks about how cool his wife is and how much he loves her at least once a week. Nothing like a reminder that love is not dead! He will also occasionally drop some very eye-opening life wisdom, and that definitely keeps the people awake (my class was at 3:30pm lol).

The grade total comes from 2 major papers, section participation, and 2 mini-papers due on the first day of finals. I found it difficult to get started writing my first philosophy papers, but my TA explained the whole process well. My TA (Yucheng, really nice guy!) was great at giving us a summary of the week's class content during discussion section, in a "philosophy for beginners" kind of way. He graded the papers very fairly and gave the most thorough paper feedback I have ever received in my college career (not kidding).

Overall, highly recommend this class. #tCFF23

This course was structured with 3 papers making up 90% of your grade and discussion being the other 10%. If you don't enjoy writing this class may be a bit of a struggle. Lectures could be dry but the material was interesting. However, some of the readings were long and hard to understand. TAs are really helpful in reviewing essays and going over course concepts.

I would not recommend this course unless you really enjoy philosophy. Most of the class consists of doing the readings and taking notes, which is not hard but can be very time consuming. There is not much course work in between the three assignments which are all essays. The first two assignments are 6-8 page essays and the last is two separate 3-5 page essays. The discussions are easy to participate in having only watched the lectures however it is impossible to write an essay without thoroughly reading through the sources. If you watch the lectures and keep up with the readings the class is manageable, but if you get behind on the readings it is going to be a stressful time writing the essays.

This class was super interesting to understand and look more into society and our human nature. I was a little scared to take it because it is a paper heavy class, but I ended up enjoying it. It was a little overwhelming in the beginning of the semester, but it all worked out. I would definitely recommend reading the readings after watching the lectures because it makes writing the papers so much easier!

THIS CLASS IS NOTHING LIKE THE DESCRIPTION!! I went into this class thinking it would teach me how to live a "happy, satisfying, meaningful, and fulfilling life," but instead it did absolutely nothing of that sort. The entire class is philosophers arguing their views and ideas. The readings are extremely hard to understand/dense and are extremely uninteresting unless you are genuinely interested in philosophy. I signed up for this class to fulfill a gen ed requirement, and dropped it halfway through. This class is not worth it and I highly recommend taking a different class!!! Langsam is clearly passionate about what he is teaching, but all of his lectures are just him talking with no visual aid. They are VERY boring. The discussions are not very helpful, as many of the students sit there extremely confused. 90% of your grade is based on essays, so unless you are a really good writer it will be very hard to get an A. Seriously, do not take this class!!!

This class was alright. If you did the readings and paid attention in lectures, it was honestly pretty interesting. Professor Langsam is a pretty interesting guy, and he's, for the most part, an engaging lecturer. The discussion section was pretty useful because my TA would reiterate all the major points and basically just talk to us for the whole time, rather than making us answer difficult questions, so it was easy to get full marks even without doing the readings. You write four papers throughout the semester and that is pretty much your whole grade, but there are a number of prompts to choose from, each corresponding more or less with one day of reading and lecture, so if there is one class that you understand really well, you'll be fine. I had a very difficult time with this class once we went online for COVID, because it became really hard to focus on readings and the more dry lectures. Still, this class wasn't all that hard, and I did feel like I got something out of it. A word of advice: pay attention at least to the first few lectures, because a lot of the basic topics get built upon as the semester progresses.

This is a great course to take to fulfill the humanities requirement. The only grades you have are 4 essays so that's nice. The readings are dense, but that's to be expected for philosophy. However, Langsam does a great job of clarifying the readings during lecture so I would recommend going. Also, for each essay he gives you like 6-8 options so you can choose to write about what you understand best. Most of the options also only directly relate to 1-2 readings so in theory you can get away without doing every reading. However, as someone who got an A, I would recommend highly annotating each reading because you don't necessarily know which one you are going to write about and it's nice to have these annotations so you don't have to re-read 40 pages in depth before the essay. If you are a good writer, you'll be fine. My TA was Jimin Lee, and she was wonderful. The essays are standard: 2 6-8 page essays and 2 3-5 page essays. Sometimes you feel that you are being redundant which is why I really emphasize understanding in depth the readings (i.e. a prompt can be "is reason what makes us people" or something to that effect which can be daunting to write 7 pages on). However, if you go to lectures, do the readings, and are a good writer I dont see how you wouldn't get lower than a B+ in this class.

Langsam is a funny guy and makes lectures interesting. Unfortunately, if you're not interested in Philosophy this class can be a bit dry. There are a lot of philosophers that you are "supposed" to know what their views are on things etc. I would say this class could be really easy if you want it to be: you could wait for essay prompts to come out (4 essays / semester) then try to understand only that material and write a decent essay. However, listening to Langsam is important because you won't be in the right mindset and know how you are supposed to be thinking.
If you listen to lectures, take basic notes, and write decently, you should get an A depending on your TA grader (Jimin is really nice).