This class should be relatively doable with a minimal time commitment. I will spend most of this review talking about the TAs since they really make or break your enjoyment in this class. I did not go to any lectures, which is mostly the reason why I can't say anything about the professor.

My TA was Moises, and to say he was pretty great would be an understatement. He is extremely knowledgable, very forgiving with grade deadlines (I had to ask for a one day extension on 2 of the 3 papers, both of which were granted), grades rapidly (he finished grading our final paper in around 4 days), and leaves great feedback to make sure you do better on future papers. I, admittedly, went to very few discussions, but the ones I did go to were super eye opening, he really does ask questions that make you think, and not in the "I'm 14 and this is so deep" way. You can tell that he loves what he does, and I wholeheartedly recommend him. He provides many opportunities to to check your paper before the deadline to ensure you get the best grade possible. He wants you to succeed and learn. Please give him the time and respect that he deserves; he is simply awesome.

Moving on to the logistics of the class, your grade is solely determined by 3 papers, which are entirely based on the reading. Doing the assigned reading and going to discussion is more than enough work to do very well in this class. That's... kinda it actually; again, this is a class that is defined by the TA you get.

This is a fascinating class. As a political science major, I might be biased, but I found its topics to be captivating and thought-provoking.

The class is divided into three writing assignments that each make up 1/3 of your final grade. Work hard on these assignments, consult your TA (important), and triple-check every statement you make – your TA is likely a philosophy wizard, so be careful!

There are weekly readings, which are a lot – don't worry, there is a way around this. I used the lecture time to review spark notes of each chapter of the readings and took detailed notes. I completely blocked out what the professor was saying – he tends to ramble without a PPT, although I'm sure it's very interesting if you pay attention.

I used this formula for all three writing assignments and got A's on all of them. Overall, it's a low-time commitment GE if you play your cards right.

take this class if you can tolerate philosophy and only want to think about the class once a week. ok here's the thing. I went to the first lecture all ready to learn about philosophy and I left with the intention of never going to lecture again. The only thing I actually did for this class was go to discussion-- I didn't do the readings or go to lecture. My TA, Moises, was awesome and he basically summarized everything in 50 minutes that the prof couldn't do in 2.5 hours. There are only three assignments total which were all super doable and my TA let us turn in our rough drafts for editing, basically ensuring an A on each paper. Even if you wanted to go to lecture, he records it and I found it more helpful to listen to him in 2x speed when I was trying to find info for the papers anyways. So I guess I would recommend it lol

AJ is great. The TA I had was not. The whole class breaks down into three written assignments, one for each author you cover (Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau) all graded by your TA. If you take this class, be prepared for the most subjective grading imaginable.

Philos 6 is a great class. 3 homework assignments make up your grade so make sure you go to office hours to see what your TA wants. AJ is a sweet lecturer. Would recommend this class in a heart beat.

this guy is awesome!!! he's so awkward and hilarious in a subtle way that you want to go to lecture just to watch him standing at the front of the classroom. he doesn't lecture very well, but you don't really need to go to the lecture since he just reviews the readings. he's great! you really SHOULD go to section though, great tool. the material was really interesting too, quite a plus. i got an A-, but i don't really think that's much to complain about. i'm fine with that. he was always available for office hours, but i usually just went to my TA's office hours because she was the person that determined your grade. i don't know if this is correct, but i think it was 3 take-home assignments and a final that you got to bring your own notes to. that might have changed, but even then it was not too bad.

if you want a class with interesting material and isn't so demanding, take this class. if you want a class where you don't have to go to the lecture, take this class. if you want a class where your teacher is practically the real life version of allen from the hangover, TAKE. THIS. CLASS.

Took Philosophy 6 during Fall 2011. Boring lectures, do not go. I didn't learn anything, it was hard to pay attention to his points and he doesn't use a microphone for the big lecture hall. I would go and try to pay attention but only succeeded to do so for the first 5-10 minutes and then dozed off.
The TA goes over everything during discussion and he posted summaries and analyses online.
There are 3 papers, no quizzes, no midterms. That's good. Learn how to write like a philosopher to get a good grade! it's different than other writings...
The readings were boring and too long and confusing.
I got an A- overall which I am sore about because the class didn't seem too hard but I still received an A-.
Overall, it's a pretty chill class, do not really need to go to lecture, the professor doesn't even care if you show up. He is pretty chill. In the first class he mentioned how he didn't want to be called Professor or by his last name, just A.J. so after a while you forget his name.
Definitely go to TA's office hours because they are the ones who grade your papers.

Grade is 100% up to the T.A. I got a TA that graded harder than he should've so I got an A- :(

This class talks about stuff like "if a homeless person is unable to do basic things like use the bathroom, is he unfree to do those things?" or "if a person is unable to get a good job, and resorts to welfare, is he/she taking advantage of the system or is the system unjust?"

If you like this kind of stuff, you'll have a fun time in this class, but if not, you'll just thing it's crazy overanalysis of random bull. Still, you have to write 3 essays and that is solely what your grade is based on.

Lecture is pretty much pointless, I went for the first couple weeks thinking I would learn something, but ended up just going on reddit for an hour. The last couple weeks, I just got some extra sleep. The TA's usually just go over everything. And it's one article per week. If you even want to read it (I didn't)

Take this class for an easy A. Don't take this class if you actually want to learn. Lecture was very difficult to pay attention in. In my opinion, the material was boring and his charisma did not help one bit. He does not have the speaking skills to teach by simply lecturing. A power point could have easily helped his lectures.

The Professor was a nice guy and was interested in what he was teaching. He was always nervous when he taught and could be boring. There were only three papers for the course which should've made it easy. However, the grade is completely based off of the TA. I had a TA who wanted specific answers and allowed for no creativity in the papers. He was the hardest TA, an English stickler, and ended up giving me a B+. If you take the class make sure your TA is good and has background in philosophy (my TA was not even a philosophy major).