This review is for PHILOS 7 with Dr. Hsu. I would NOT recommend this class if you're not a Philosophy major. There are plenty of other GE's that fulfill this same requirement and are much more clear and engaging than Philos 7. Dr. Hsu doesn't use slides in his lectures, so there's no coherent idea of what you're learning each day. There is very little structure to the class website, so you never really know what's going on. We also had a technical problem for the ENTIRE quarter so there were no Bruincasts of the lectures. I'm honestly shocked I got the grade I did, and most of it is due to opting out of the final because of COVID19.

If you do decide to take this course, make sure you participate as much as possible in discussion and try to go to your TA's office hours at least once. This is less about learning and more about the grade bump they offer some students in light of "excellent contributions" in discussion.

TLDR: Don't take this class, and if you do, make sure your TA knows your name.

Pros:
- The only real "work" for this class are two essays: your midterm and final respectively. Nothing else really matters for your grade. However, while this makes day-to-day work easy, it's a lot more pressure and you have little to pad your grade should you bomb either.
- My TA (Saraliza Anzaldua) was extremely helpful and engaging. I didn't go to lecture, but she covered what was talked about in lecture and contributed to a greater understanding of the material covered.
- You don't really need to go to class. Obviously, it makes things harder, but going to lecture didn't really help me. This is good, but I'll explain more about why lecture didn't help below.

Cons:
- Lecture was EXTREMELY boring. Hsu explains concepts in a convoluted, drawn-out manner, making concepts even harder to understand at times. He's also an extremely boring lecturer. He would also pause for questions halfway through the class, and with it being philosophy, people would begin to just spout off. Hsu never stopped them, either, even though he should. If you do go to lecture, I advise just tapping out whenever he takes questions -- you'll be better off this way. If anything, don't take this class as an 8am. Just don't.

Professor Hsu is a nice man and you can tell he's very passionate about the material. However, this is a very difficult class to take if you have no experience with philosophy whatsoever. The only things you do in the class are the midterm and final essays and the homework assignments. You only need to do three homework assignments and I was confused if that meant that you only needed to do three to get at least a C, but you shouldn't do all 5 because they'll only grade three of them. They aren't graded for accuracy, only for whether or not you gave them a fair shot.
The midterm and the final were the hard parts of this class for sure. I basically had to figure out how to write a philosophical essay which is different from anything I've ever done. Go to your TA's office hours and discussion sections because those were the most helpful things I did this quarter. I somehow came out with a decent enough grade but do not take this class if you have another choice.

Is this a hard class? Yes. Is the material extremely hard to wrap your head around sometimes? Definitely. This is definitely a class that is not for the faint of heart. But I really do think that Prof. Hsu did a good job teaching the material. He allowed us to ask questions in class and was often receptive to the ideas of students and would respond to them. (I must note that I also have a benefit of having some familiarity of the material going into this class and being a philosophy major who likes this kind of content, so keep that in mind).

I will warn you that the only two things that determine your letter grade are your midterm essays and final essays, with five homework assignments that aren't worth credit but you need to pass 3 to get a passing grade in the class. But honestly, if you stay on top of it and do the readings, you'll be fine. With that said, I can definitely see why if you're not into philosophy/majoring in it, this can be a ROUGH class.

Also, on a lighter note, don't take this class as an 8AM if you can avoid it. Prof. Hsu has a Bob Ross-type inflection to his voice that often lulled me to sleep in class, even if I found the material itself engaging.

DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS.

The material is horrid and extremely unclear. If I could go back and tell my freshman self not to take this class I would.

I entered the class extremely excited due to my interest in philosophy. Unfortunately, though, lectures weren't that clear and the syllabus on CCLE did not help. I enjoyed some of the readings but I didn't feel confident when writing essays about them. The positive aspect of the class was that we didn't have to write essays or take tests in class. What I would change is the engagement and clarity of the lectures.

Philosophy with him is fun, even though he is boring at times.
Honestly, the class is pretty tough but hella interesting but getting an A is manageable if you have a good rapport with your TA so go to discussion.
I would recommend this class, just to broaden your horizons.

The professor is someone who is certainly well versed in the concepts, and attempts to convey the difficult concepts to the students in the class. For someone who is not interested in philosophy, this class is not recommended - the concepts are hard to grasp and it becomes difficult to understand the reasoning process behind what the professor is saying, since often times he is unclear, and he tends to repeat himself especially in regards to trying to answer questions from students are not understanding the material correctly. Otherwise, Professor Hsu is quite nice and patient regarding answering questions and is certainly not the worst professor you can have, just expect tedium.

I took a philosophy class in high school and liked it, so I thought that the case would be the same with this class. Unfortunately, I was wrong. The concepts that are discussed are so abstract and difficult to get a firm grasp on that it is very easy to get lost. Most of the arguments that are presented are from long-dead philosophers who seem to only want to complicate things rather than explain the way that people think and the human condition or the state of the universe (maybe this is actually the point of philosophy and I've just missed it). It seemed that the arguments were full of "Yeah, but what if...," which gets incredibly annoying after a while. The professor is extremely kind and articulate, but almost to a fault. His diction and way of speaking (side note: his accent is pretty cool if that helps) only further complicated things, and he often went on tangents that only vaguely related to the lesson. I did end the class with an A, but that is only because I put a lot of time and effort into the two big papers that are due as well as the homework assignments. Overall, I wouldn't say that this class was particularly enlightening, and I was glad when it was over, but I will admit that it presents a different way of thinking that some people may find inherent. I didn't.

I took Philosophy 21 because an NSA told me it would be fun during orientation. That guy had no idea what he was talking about. Silly freshman me had no idea what I was getting myself into.

This class was absolutely boring. Lectures put me to sleep, and no matter how many times I tried to understand the readings, I often got lost. I BS'd a lot of my essays, and my TA who was condescending and very hard to reach, graded pretty harshly. I never bothered to go to discussion, so this was why. Definitely make friends with your TA. I can see how they make or break your grade.

I barely escaped with a C-, so go to lecture, take diligent notes, go to discussion, participate often, and find others in the class that can help. It's a hard and boring class, but it's definitely doable.