Stunningly fantastic class. Hands down, I can confidently say that Brad is one of the best professors at UCLA. Great clarity in lecture, despite the convoluted concepts we wrangle with throughout this course. Extremely engaging and often displays his concern for students' learning. Never harsh or judgemental when students participate, ask questions, or even challenge the material!

There are two exams (one midterm, one final) and two papers. A very manageable workload, with lots of time and material provided to prepare. Both the TAs and Brad often host extra hours in the week(s) leading up to exam dates and paper due dates. They are extremely helpful and really get you to practice philosophy and increase your understanding.

There were no materials students needed to purchase. Brad would upload chapters and articles for us when necessary. Read them! Lectures often center around the arguments provided in those chapters, and Brad helps clarify and organize them to better suit learning.

Brad also uploads (nearly) weekly handouts that contain the specific wording of certain concepts and moral arguments. Extremely helpful and important! Most of the exam material can be sourced from the handouts as well as the lecture explanations regarding them.

Waner was my TA, and she is fantastic! Very willing to meet up for extra office hours, and provides easily understandable clarifications on the course material. Also, the most fashionable philosophy TA :))

Please take this class. I've had an amazing time in it; it really expands your understanding of moral issues today. During this quarter, we discussed obligations of aid towards people in need, abortion, as well as the issues regarding medical experimentation. If you thought you were informed on your stances before, think again. Put in the effort to learn in this class; you'll find that you'll get a lot more out of this than you initially thought!

This was a really interesting class and easily the best GE that I have taken. His quizzes were a little challenging (due to the pandemic, they were asynchronous multiple choice where you had to apply the material we learned to analyze a moral argument), but he curved them so the distribution was fair. The essays were fairly easy because we received heavy guidance on writing them. The lectures were compelling and the content was enjoyable to think about even outside of class. I think it helped me shape my arguments in my daily life, reconsider opinions that I took for granted, and changed the way I approach big questions. Also his mini unit on formal logic was useful for my other subjects.

Highly recommend this class. It's not just some easy A, but it's a class where you won't mind putting the effort in to understand it.

Light workload BUT be warned, this is NOT an easy class where you can bullshit your way through the content without really knowing it. If you want to succeed, you will have to pay attention in lectures and understand the material really well.

*COVID-19 Review, be aware that this may differ from in-person classes*

Grading:
10% Quiz 1, 10% Quiz 2, 15% Quiz 3, 30% Paper 1, 35% Final Paper

I'm a STEM major and was just taking this class as a GE, so philosophy isn't really my forte. That said, Professor McHose made this class a fairly decent experience. He used interesting examples to illustrate concepts and broke things down in ways that made the material a bit easier to digest. There was no additional work apart from some readings and the assignments stated above. He makes his notes on the material available to view after each lecture which was very helpful.

Quizzes were all multiple choice and weren't awfully difficult, though some questions were worded in a way that was slightly trickier to get. He said that the MC aspect was for ease of grading while online, so things may not remain that way. The first paper prompt explicitly told us what was expected and didn't feel too difficult. The final paper prompt seemed a little vaguer and harder to understand in my opinion, and I wish we had either slightly more preparation for it or had an easier prompt. This may just be my STEM bias talking though. The TAs used discussion time to review the material, allow students to discuss and ask questions about it, and sometimes give tips on how to express our ideas on our papers. In general, both the professor and the TAs were kind and helpful.

TLDR: While philosophy isn't my personal favorite subject as a south campus major, professor Mchose's teaching style and the helpful TAs made this class still feel like a decent experience overall.

This is my first time writing review because this class is so above my expectation. This is my first (and probably last) philosophy class. I have absolutely no former background or intensive interest towards philosophy. However, I would say prof McHose really made me interested in it. To be frank, I did struggle in this class for weeks (partly credit to the 12:30 class time), but I have to admit the professor did an excellent job in explaining all these concepts and arguments with examples. The grade is consisted of two papers and two exams. The time for the second paper is a bit tight so start preparing ahead! As for the exams, make sure you go to professor's office hour because that will help A LOT. Also, definitely recommend choosing Waner as your TA! She is super nice and structured for section. Definitely a doable philosophy class. The takeaway will be bigger than you thought.

I really enjoyed this class. The material itself is very interesting to me. Workload is really doable. I really like the professor. He is really engaging in the class, and explains concepts with a lot of interesting examples. He is extremely helpful in OH as well. If you listen to his class carefully, and finish what he asks, you will be set in the class. This is my favorite GE so far. Highly recommend!

this class was a solid 6.75/10, not bad at all but was by no means easy. you're gonna have to relisten to lectures and take notes during lecture in order to understand these tricky terms and concepts, but it is doable. Prof McHose was very clear (sometimes too clear lmao) and this helped demystify the idea that philosophy is super vague and existential and impossible to understand.

The essays are heavily factored into your grade, and while they have an easy-to-follow structure, they were definitely the toughest part of the course. for a decent essay, expect to take about a week to brainstorm and write it.

Over other philosophy courses, I think this is one of the best. But if you have easier GE options, consider taking those to spare you the mental taxation. If you have no other choice, honestly this class was fine in the end and you'll be fine, too.

The professor himself is SUPER funny and chill and he taught the subject VERY well!! His quizzes were kinda difficult though. I did okay on the first two (mid As), but I tanked the last one (mid C). He averages them up and then curves instead of dropping the lowest. I ended up with a low A average for my quizzes, which I felt was a VERY fair grade considering I straight up got a C on one of them.
His materials have unique and engaging examples, and his method of lecturing is very relaxed (colloquial words, jokes, funny examples, back-and-forth student participation, etc.), but also very structured at the same time (pre-made handouts you can follow along with, polls, tangents that make sense/are relevant, etc.).
The bulk of your grade are your two papers. There were no example papers to base your paper off of, but he does go over an overall structure-ish. We did not have to write a lot of original stuff (the first paper he gave us the introduction paragraph entirely), but the structure is VERY specific, so if you can follow that structure to a T, you'll do great. You're kind of thrown into it a little bit too though. However, he has mandatory 1-1 sessions with the TA to go over the papers, and if you listen to all of the criticisms, you should get an A on the second paper.
Overall, a super fun class! I would recommend, but you should probably put in some work in really getting the concepts rather than memorizing stuff or the papers and quizzes will mess you up.

This was my favorite class that I took this quarter. I thought the material was super interesting and the professor was good at keeping us engaged by allowing us to participate in zoom polls every lecture. The professor asks for questions periodically during lecture and repeats what we’ve gone over a lot, so that was also really helpful. I also thought he was pretty funny at times. We took 3 quizzes for the quarter, which I thought were kinda tricky but as long as you really pay attention in lecture and go over the handouts you should get an at least decent grade. Plus, he curves them to your favor at the end of the quarter. On a straight scale I would’ve gotten around a B+ average, but it was bumped up to an A. You can also get a bump in your grade if you participate, this can be done in lecture, discussion, office hours, or even just by shooting an email to the professor with your thoughts about the material. There were 2 papers, not very long and like I said for the quizzes, paying attention in lecture and following the handouts should get you through it pretty well. Both the professor and TAs held extra office hours leading up to due dates for the paper, so there’s always help if you need it. Discussion is optional but I definitely recommend going so that you get a better understanding of what’s going on in lecture. I had Amber and I liked her a lot, she was really nice and helpful. If there was ever something you were having trouble understanding, she would take the time to break it down for you until you got it. Overall, I would definitely recommend this class.

Really interesting class; I took it as a major prereq but it also fulfills the philosophical analysis GE. Definitely recommend choosing a different ge though if you’re looking for an easy A. The class has a really light workload, just attend lecture to understand the notes and handouts prof posts on CCLE. There’s about 3 readings assigned throughout the quarter related to the material discussed in lecture which range from 10-20 pages but if you skim them and follow lecture you should be able to understand what’s going on. Grading is based on three quizzes and two papers. Quizzes tested your ability to apply content and concepts from lecture and readings; pretty mind numbing imo. Papers were on whether abortion or medical exploitation is morally permissible or not. Prompts are given about a week in advance but are pretty dense so definitely get a head start on your paper. The TAs and prof have lots of OH so definitely make use of them. Prof McHose definitely knows what he’s teaching and explains things thoroughly, with examples, and repeats often to reinforce the material. Really smart guy and engaging lecture all-around.

Grading Breakdown:
10% - Quiz #1 (metaethics material)
10% - Quiz #2 (medical exploitation material)
15% - Quiz #3 (abortion material)
30% - First Paper
35% - Final Paper

TLDR: interesting course, not easy A, no busy work