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.

Do not take this class no matter what. Offers no actual education literally do not know what the point of the reading or lectures were. Supposed to learn 'what it means to say you intend something'. Yeah could not tell you the answer. Literally had to fight falling asleep in every lecture. He talks very softly and formally, almost like he's talking in riddles. Also asks everything as a question but does not mean it as a question. There are 5 hw assignments, you need to complete 3 on time and submit 2 for a grade at the end. He doesn't say it explicitly but he wants them to be fairly lengthy (1-2+ pages). The midterm is two short-essay questions also need to be long but won't say it. Final is a LONG essay on a question of your choice. Would be easy if I knew what we learned so I could answer the question. He is also a hard grader. I thought it would be an easy A bc it's the average of your two hw assignments, midterm and final grade taken into account. Then lowest of the three is dropped and your final grade is the average of the remaining two. Literally the only reason I did not drop this class was cause I thought it was worth the 'easy-A', little did I know how hard he grades. Also went to his oh a few times and he was very dismissive like he didn't want me there? Like my friends who there actually thought he hated me or something even though that was the first convo I had w the guy.

Very difficult class, Dont take it if you don't have to.

This class seems completely unstructured. I am not sure what I am supposed to have learned.

Don't take this class for a GE. Big mistake. Sorry to be so blunt, but Professor Hsu is awful. Extremely unclear, no structure or focus during lectures, no slideshows or lecture notes, just him talking for the entire time. I stopped going to lectures simply because of how useless they were. TA's will save your life; sections were usually very helpful.

I took this class during the TA strike, so our grading schedule was out of the ordinary. Usually, you have to write two essays, and those are your ONLY grades all quarter. The week after we turned in our midterm essays, the TA's went on strike and when they returned they did not grade any of our essays, so Prof had to make last-minute changes to our grading scale, and I scraped by with a B. Since that was out of the ordinary, I didn't base my review off of that, rather the course material. The readings are interesting, it's actually fascinating to read about philosophers 400 years ago who talk about things that still apply today. It was a lot of theoretical-ness, which I like learning about, but it makes the class stressful and hard because it's so subjective. If you're the type of person who is more comfortable reading a textbook, taking weekly quizzes, and memorizing facts, this will not be an enjoyable class. I felt like I had to open up my third eye or something to understand what was going on, it was a lot of Inception type topics where it's hard to wrap your head around. I enjoyed the readings, but the lecture itself was extremely hard to follow. I'm not a philosophy major and I've never taken a philosophy course before, so when Prof would talk I would have no clue what he was talking about 90% of the time. His lectures don't have much structure, so it's hard to write down concise notes, I would just pay attention to the readings. He is very passionate and clearly VERY intelligent, but I feel like a lot of the material just went over my head. I would take this class again if it was something I did in my free time, but the lack of structure and very theoretical lectures makes it very stressful if you (like me) cannot follow his train of thought.

hsu was a super kind, sweet guy! lectures made absolutely zero sense and you learn the majority of the material from your TAs. however, Hsu was super accommodating during the TA strike and changed his final in order to help the students.

Pay attention to your discussion section and go to your office hours. Your entire grade is based on your midterm and final essay grade. The readings are difficult so creating study groups is a must.