TL;DR: even philosophy majors say this is their least favorite philosophy class. Do not take.

I read many reviews about how Hsu is hard to follow, how no one attends lecture, how TA's can grade harshly, etc. All of it is true. I did every single reading, yet could not follow Hsu's lectures at all, and would almost always end up falling asleep. Went to every single discussion (which they claim will allow them to boost your grade b/c good participation), went for help on my essays, yet still got a 77 and a 74 on both essays. Ended with a B-, no grade bump. It's ridiculous. The material is honestly not interesting, the lectures suck, discussion is pointless, and all your efforts end for naught. Do not take this class. A GE is supposed to be an interesting grade boost, and this satisfied neither.

The class is difficult. The topics are hard to cover and Hsu is often difficult to understand. A lot of the class was spent answering questions, but overall he did a good job of preparing everyone for the midterm/final. If you're a philosophy major, you have to take it. If you aren't a philosophy major, take another class.

This class was a lot harder than I expected. As a non-philosophy major, I did not know what I was getting myself into. Your grade is entirely determined by the midterm and the final split 50% to 50%. This means in order to get an A you need to get an A on both papers. As I got a B+ on my midterm I knew I couldn't get any higher than an A-. The prompts for the papers are also quite difficult to comprehend and also have to be short and to the point. I ended up working probably 60+ hours on my 2 essays for the final which allowed me to get an A- in the class. Wouldn't recommend the class but I did find the material interesting despite it not being taught well.

I am a philosophy minor and this was my last required class to complete the minor. After reading the reviews, I almost didn't take the class for the sake of maintaining my GPA and was going to give up my minor. Ironically, I ended up getting my first A+ in all my years of college (I'm a senior). Here is how to do well in this class: go to every lecture and every discussion section and take amazing notes. I cannot emphasize enough how much lecture notes will help you answer the midterm and final questions. Then, go to your TA's and professor's office hours only before the midterm and final to ask questions and listen to others' questions. I mainly went to my TA because he was the one grading my paper and then went to the professor for additional clarification. They will tell you what they are looking for. There were people who complained about this professor but never went to lecture/discussion sections or don't pay attention when they did go. He repeats things during lecture a lot and rephrases so that even if you didn't understand or zoned out the first time, you are bound to hear him say it again and will understand it. The repetition is not annoying but is actually VERY helpful. I didn't find this class to be boring and his accent was not hard to understand at all. He does answer all questions and it takes away from class time, but when we shared in the groupme that it would be better for people to stop asking so many questions, they stopped and it was no longer an issue. Professor Hsu is so sweet and will never not have a smile on his face. He'll literally be smiling the entire time he's lecturing.

As someone who has had no philosophy experience ever and was taking this as a last resort GE as this was the only one that fit in my schedule, I was super nervous going into this class after reading these reviews. But I can wholeheartedly say this class was not that bad at all. In fact I think I enjoyed it.

The only workload for this class in the midterm and final, which is super nice. You only need to get a passing grade on 3/5 hw assignments, so once you do three you are done, and they are super easy. Also the readings are chill, they are short and I mostly skimmed because the professor would explain them in class and they didn't help much on the papers anyways.

The key to getting an A in this class is just putting the effort. Some students said the content was hard to grasp, but personally I didn't think so. The problem I think is that the professor has a pretty monotone voice, and it's easy to zone out at times and then you just get completely lost. Additionally, since he doesn't use slides and we usually just follow along on a worksheet, it can be hard at times to stay engaged. But I would do what a lot of people wouldn't: TAKE STELLAR NOTES. A lot of people didn't go to lecture, but I would go to every single one. I would literally just write down the important stuff he says in class, and my notebook became basically a textbook on the class. When the midterm prompts dropped, I literally had all the answers written down in my notebook and just turned it into an essay. (Oh btw, he tends to go on long tangents during lecture when philosophy majors ask random questions, you can zone out then.)

Additionally, I went to office hours. THIS IS KEY! My TA got sick and the professor was our TA for majority of the quarter, and only then did I realize how helpful it is to actually talk through the material with him. You only really need to go like the week of your midterm and final, but I went pretty often (at least once a week) because the professor is really kind and will genuinely try to explain things to the best of his ability if you don't understand. BUT DURING OFFICE HOURS THE TAS AND PROFESSOR WILL BASICALLY TELL YOU EXACTLY WHAT NEEDS TO BE ON YOUR PAPERS!! So basically I wrote a rough draft out from my notes alone, asked clarifying questions on it at office hours (you can literally show them your paper), fixed the things they commented on, and turned them in.

So by 1) going to class 2) taking good notes and 3) religiously going to office hours I got an A on both papers and ended with an A in a class I thought I was gonna fail. And I would honestly take another class with this professor again, I wish he would just change his grading a little because the 50% midterm 50% final grading scheme is a little stressful. But other than that, trust me, IT IS DOABLE!

I took this class winter quarter with James as my ta. James was really helpful when I attended the only three discussions i did, since they weren't mandatory, but for the ones i went to he explained the material very well and gave us great information to use for the midterm and final. the class is graded so that half of your grade relies on your midterm and the other half relies on the final. honestly i thought i wasn't going to do so great in this class, but James was a very kind grader. even if i literally failed to answer the question or forgot to provide examples, he only marked me off one point. i probably wouldn't be so happy with this class if i had a different ta though. his concepts were kind of confusing at times but he holds plenty of office hours for questions, and does his best to answer any questions. i kind of felt bad because everyone in my class pestered him on day one with questions after seeing his bruin walk reviews, asking how he was going to change his teaching style or what he was going to do differently, but he just said he'd want to get better with using canvas because he didn't really know what they were asking. he's so adorable and has the best accent, i really liked having him as a professor because his lectures were usually easy to follow. sometimes he would get a bit repetitive or take up all clasd time to answer obscure questions that the philosophy majors would ask, but overall good professor in terms of clarity & easiness. i just feel like i didn't really gain anything from this class, other than being able to read works of past philosophers which was cool, i didn't really gain much. hope this helps

I’m a philosophy major and I regret taking this class. Unclear lectures take a very basic argument from week 1 and convolute it endlessly until week 10. The final is literally about a one-sentence argument from week ONE. Somehow still do poorly on each paper because its totally subjective how the prof and TA’s want to interpret your answers. If you can – avoid Jae won as TA. SUPER low workload if you want easy class but not fun to read and the texts are meaningless metaphysical garbage that just interpret the first mediation in different ways.

professor hsu is such a nice guy and really tries to help students understand the material. this class has an awful grading scheme of 50% midterm essay 50% final essay, and you have to complete 3 short writing assignments out of 5 (satisfactorily, so just don’t turn in nonsense basically) in order to not fail the class (they don’t count for points you just get failed if you don’t do it). also no participation required and he records audio or video and audio for all classes!!! especially for a philosophy professor, he’s pretty clear in his lectures. he does his best to explain and re-explain and re-explain again the most convoluted texts so that people will understand them. it takes a minute to adjust to the philosophy mindset and the content of the class can be difficult. however, if you just attend all the lectures and follow along with his explanations and analyses of the text, he’s pretty good as a lecturer. the midterm and final questions are also pretty much exactly what we discuss in class so having gone to class, you can formulate a solid answer. plus, the exams are a 4-6 page paper and you answer 2 different questions in the paper so it’s not long at all. also the reading is like maybe 2 short readings a week, and he really takes his time and addresses all student questions before moving on to the next topic so you get a lot of time to process the ideas presented. people just get really dramatic over philosophy courses because it’s a different way of looking at reading and writing, and because the texts can be difficult. just ride it out, listen to what the prof says, and you’ll start to understand it. if reading and writing really isn’t your strong suit then maybe avoid this class, there are philosophy classes with easier content (look for an ethics class maybe). but overall not bad and he’s absolutely so sweet and patient, one of my favorite profs teaching an unfortunately very difficult intro GE course

Professor Hsu I think is a well-intentioned and very intelligent professor, but I think his lectures were quite confusing. I really enjoyed the readings for this course and felt the homework assignments weren't too bad, but the lectures simply were not engaging. I think he is often very long-winded, and finds it difficult to state things in a concise manner. The midterm and final are the only assignments that count toward your grade, and they were both graded more strictly than I was expecting. Both papers are essentially two essays, which have multiple questions each. The homework assignments are meant to be practice for the midterm and finals as well.

Professor Hsu is an excellent teacher who is able to break down seemingly difficult logical arguments to something even I could understand. Philosophy is all about talking through the concepts so I definitely recommend going to his or your TA's office hours. Admittedly, an 8:00 am philosophy class is difficult to stay awake in, but the class is not hard as long as you keep up with readings (which are short). I really enjoyed my time in his class which honestly changed the way I look at the world. Radical skepticism is a really interesting concept if you actually give time to think about it. This class almost made me pick up a philosophy minor...