I feel like this class isn't as easy as most of the reviews make it out to be. The workload is very light but the exams, while they aren't worth a huge chunk of your grade (midterm 10% and final 20%), and while they are short multiple choice exams, definitely aren't the easiest. You HAVE to study. The 4 essays for the class are only 2 pages in length double-spaced which is nice, but you CANNOT go over 2 pages. Therefore, it can be challenging trying to fit as much information possible with only 2 pages to work with. And the essays are graded harshly. Every single detail of your essay matters. Attendance in discussion is 10 percent. In my discussion section, all we did was ask questions about the material. Overall, in my opinion, this class is not bad, but just don't underestimate it. You have to put in effort in order to do well.

I also agree that most of the reviews on here say "this class is an easy GE," WHICH IS THE COMPLETE OPPOSITE. This class is actually really tough not because the material is tough to grasp, but because the multiple choice tests are so tricky and the TAs are really tough graders. I had a friend who wrote a really well-thought out essay that was better than mine, and she got a C because her TA was a narcissist. And for the MC tests, you often have to choose more than one option like AC or BD or ABD, which is annoying. I got a question about a squirrel wrong because I only put one option, and it haunts me to this day. And I only missed maybe 3 questions on the midterm but because the test is out of 27, your grade gets lowered even if you hash out perfect essays. The hierarchy of this course does not serve it, but the Professor is an amazing teacher and very funny. I paid attention during almost all the lectures and took extensive notes in the daily journals she provided because it was engaging and used scenarios I found creative and practical. I learned a lot about theoretical science because of this course, and I found the content fulfilling. If you are willing to learn a lot and expect an imbalance in the grades you receive, then I recommend you take this course. You will learn but it will be tough.

Honestly, this class should've been an easy A. There were four essays on topics we've covered, with outlines online to help you out. The midterm and final were 30 multiple choice questions each., and Elliot was a nice enough teacher although her humor was a bit lacking at times.

But it was just so boring. I'm honestly not sure if the material was too dense or too shallow, because I just keep zoning out. Nothing against the teacher, but it just wasn't my jam.

I guess I just don't like philosophy; too many old white guys arguing over hypotheticals.

This class was unorganized, but it was a pretty manageable class overall. The discussions were chill (I recommend James Gu) and reviewed the material from lecture. Not much reading required and all the exams were based on outlines provided in lecture. There are four 2-page papers which were straight forward and easy to write. I would recommend the class!

I took a class in contemporary philosophy of science with Professor Elliott in Fall of 2015.

Her class is fairly straight-forward; a midterm exam and a final exam, in class, in which you write responses to 3 questions out of a possible 4 or 5. She gives you the questions to study in advance as they appear on the exam, and devotes a whole class to reviewing the exam about a week before. It's very, very, very helpful. She does this for both the midterm and the final.

She assigns quizzes on the reading that are generally easy once a week. They're designed to ensure that you read the articles before class.

Elliott is very good at explaining the readings and is very funny as well. She makes the classroom atmosphere very welcoming. In general, she gives excellent lectures. Beware, though, philosophy of science is definitely one of the harder subjects in philosophy. Bring your "A" game when studying in this class. With that said, Elliott is the perfect person to take this class with. Both Smith and Elliott are good professors, so you can't go wrong in taking philosophy of science with either of them.

It was a privilege to be in her class. I learned something valuable.

I love this professor! Professor Elliott is wonderful, funny, and sincerely cares about her students.

She provides excellent outlines for each lecture that you can print/study for exams. While I found that the midterm was much more difficult than she had really let on, the final and midterm are both not huge percentages of the final grade and are multiple choice. The professor wanted us to focus on 4 papers assigned throughout the quarter that were 2 pages in length each. I found this to be very reasonable given that the material can be a little abstract at times and it was much easier to write a few papers than panic over greatly weighted in class tests .

During the very tragic shooting incident this quarter Professor Elliott immediately emailed all her students to inform us that she was canceling class for the day and would also be altering the final to make up for lost lecture time. She really cares about how students do in his course and I was very thankful for that.

She's a very engaging lecturer, and puts a lot of humor in what can be, at times, dry philosophy. Her examples were relevant to the topics at hand, which was nice. On the downside, her handwriting was not clear, but if you missed something in class, she did have lecture outlines posted online. The four papers weren't as intimidating as they sounded, and I felt that the T.A.'s did a good job explaining the expectations for them. The midterm was a bit harder than I expected, but Elliot was kind enough to individually go over every question I got wrong on the midterm during her office hours. Overall, a great professor, and I'd retake this class with her.

This class is pretty much an easy B+/A-, it seems. There are 4 two-pagers that are really easy and quick to write (I wrote it during lectures). The midterm and the final are multiple choice, but can be the tricky kind of multiple choice. You don't really need to read anything for this class, though there are assigned reading. All you really need to pay attention to are the outlines that are posted. Not a bad GE. Could be A LOT worse. The professor tries to be engaging and seems to want to make the lectures more interesting.

I absolutely loved taking this class with Professor Elliott. She has an engaging voice and her lectures are very easy to follow as long as you don't get distracted with Facebook in the middle of lecture. She does not use slides, but she posts lecture outlines on CCLE which are just as good as slides. She also takes pauses during lectures to let students ask questions or give comments about the material in front of the whole class. Sometimes she will finish explaining a philosophical concept and ask the class, "So what do you think? Does this argument sound good? If not, what's wrong with it?" Active participation at this time can lead to interesting and insightful discussions.

The midterm and final are both multiple choice and true/false scantron exams, and you do not need to provide your own scantron. The answer to every question on the midterm and final can be found on the lecture outlines, so what I did to study was reviewed the lecture outlines and created Quizlet sets from them, then did Quizlet-generated multiple choice and true/false practice tests. While the real midterm and final are not exactly like the Quizlet-generated tests (you may be asked to apply a concept to a concrete example) they are nearly that straightforward. By studying Quizlet I was able to get 100% on both the midterm and the final.

The grade is 10% midterm, 20% final, 15% paper 1, 15% paper 2, 15% paper 3, 15% paper 4, and 10% participation. I like this because the grade is very spread out, so there isn't a ton of pressure riding on one paper or exam.

The participation grade is based on your attendance and participation in discussion sections only. Lecture attendance is not a factor in your participation grade. The method of evaluation for your participation is left to the discretion of your TA. My TA asked us to write a question or an answer to a question on a piece of paper and hand it in during discussion, and that was all we had to do to earn participation points.

The papers are also very straightforward. Each paper is a maximum of two pages in length, with double-spaced 12 pt times new roman font and 1- inch margins. You do not need a heading, title, or even your name on the paper. You do not even need any kind of introduction; in philosophical writing, you just start talking. The tone is more casual, and you are allowed to speak in first person in the papers. The papers do not require much if any original thought; the point is to synthesize the material you've learned into a short, clear, explanation. All you have to do for the papers is understand the material and be able to explain it. No hook, no intro, no conclusion, no thesis.

There are assigned readings, but they are 100% not necessary. Yes, they may help you get a better understanding of the lecture material, but at the end of the day its just the lecture material you need to know and the posted lecture outlines have all the information you need. You are not tested on the readings, and you never discuss the readings in lecture nor discussion. I would say don't even bother buying the book.

Overall, I found this class to be very easy and very enjoyable. Perfect GE for just about anybody; I took it as a south campus major to meet philosophical and linguistic analysis, and there were plenty of north campus majors taking it to meet physical science (the extent of science you need to know for this class is the difference between Ptolemaic Astronomy and Copernican Astronomy and that's about it.) There were also plenty of philosophy majors taking this course.

Philosophy 8 is the class to take to fulfill a science GE in the most humanities major way possible. I loved this class! Professor Elliot was very engaging, and though the essays were graded pretty strictly, it is still more than possible to get an A in this class. Tip for exams: study the outlines. All the answers are there. Pay attention in lecture, don't be afraid to have a conversation with your TA in discussion, and you'll be fine.