PHILOS 22
Introduction to Ethical Theory
Description: Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour. Not open for credit to students with credit for course 22W. Recommended or required for many upper-division courses in Group III. Systematic introduction to ethical theory, including discussion of egoism, utilitarianism, justice, responsibility, meaning of ethical terms, relativism, etc. P/NP or letter grading.
Units: 5.0
Units: 5.0
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Most Helpful Review
Fall 2020 - As a transfer who has taken a lot of philosophy classes, this was one of the most painful I have taken. There were 3 essays (3-4 pages), and for all of them, I got no useful feedback. Part of it was the pacing; we had two of the three essays due in the last few weeks. The other part might have been just because of my T.A. Colleen, but for the last two essays I only received 5 comments in total that said either "good" or "nice" at different parts. I ended up getting a B+ on every essay. Yes I know, a B+ is not bad, but it is annoying because you can't improve on what you did wrong when you never receive comments about what you are doing wrong. The main gripe I had with the professor was that half the lecture was spent answering long unrelated questions that students should have asked during office hours and the other half of the lecture was the prof. reading almost word for word out of a text document. If you are looking for an easy intro philosophy class, this is not it.
Fall 2020 - As a transfer who has taken a lot of philosophy classes, this was one of the most painful I have taken. There were 3 essays (3-4 pages), and for all of them, I got no useful feedback. Part of it was the pacing; we had two of the three essays due in the last few weeks. The other part might have been just because of my T.A. Colleen, but for the last two essays I only received 5 comments in total that said either "good" or "nice" at different parts. I ended up getting a B+ on every essay. Yes I know, a B+ is not bad, but it is annoying because you can't improve on what you did wrong when you never receive comments about what you are doing wrong. The main gripe I had with the professor was that half the lecture was spent answering long unrelated questions that students should have asked during office hours and the other half of the lecture was the prof. reading almost word for word out of a text document. If you are looking for an easy intro philosophy class, this is not it.
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Most Helpful Review
This was my first philosophy course and I didn't know what to expect, but I loved this class, and Prof. Herman is a great teacher! I really enjoyed going to lecture--she explained the ideas/concepts really well and used funny examples. She is extremely knowledgeable and has a great sense of humor. We read Plato, Aristotle, Epictetus, Hume, Kant, and Mill. The readings weren't too bad...definitely got progressively harder though. Thankfully she gave handouts with notes on their main arguments. Know the philosophers' arguments well, discuss the study questions, and read Herman's notes, and the midterm shouldn't be hard at all. The paper (5 pages) was harder to write than I expected and I thought I was going to get an A but got a "high B+" ..wut-_- I also thought the final was harder than the midterm. Overall, awesome teacher, interesting class...definitely recommend taking if you get the chance!
This was my first philosophy course and I didn't know what to expect, but I loved this class, and Prof. Herman is a great teacher! I really enjoyed going to lecture--she explained the ideas/concepts really well and used funny examples. She is extremely knowledgeable and has a great sense of humor. We read Plato, Aristotle, Epictetus, Hume, Kant, and Mill. The readings weren't too bad...definitely got progressively harder though. Thankfully she gave handouts with notes on their main arguments. Know the philosophers' arguments well, discuss the study questions, and read Herman's notes, and the midterm shouldn't be hard at all. The paper (5 pages) was harder to write than I expected and I thought I was going to get an A but got a "high B+" ..wut-_- I also thought the final was harder than the midterm. Overall, awesome teacher, interesting class...definitely recommend taking if you get the chance!