Professor Elliott herself is a really nice person. When there were fires in the area and classes were canceled, she made an effort to hold makeup office hours, which was really kind of her to do. I read the reviews for this class, and thought it was interesting and easy enough for me to take but WOW was I wrong!!! In terms of workload, there are a total of four 2 page papers that you have to write for this class. Other than that, there's no homework except for readings she assigns, which I stopped doing because they didn't help me understand the material anyways. The first day of class, I was soo confused after lecture. Going to discussion really helped, though. I thought this class was really interesting until I got my first paper grade and my midterm grade back. We had no review for the midterm just told that it would be around 30 questions that were multiple choice and true and false. I got a C- on my first paper and a C on the midterm. Thinking that I'd get a C in the class, I changed the grading to pass/no pass. I got solid B's on my second and third paper and I got a B on the final, too. My last paper I got an A-. I think that if I had gotten better grades on the midterm and first paper than I wouldn't have changed the grading for the class, and I would've enjoyed this class more. You should go to class, though because the professor discusses the topics for the paper, which isn't given to you before it is assigned. I think my TA was just a harsh grader because for the last paper I made a one on one appointment with him to go over the draft I had written. Although, he gave me suggestions for what to fix, I still ended up with an A-. I guess it was just my luck, but I know for some people this class was easier, so I guess it just depends on the person. Try it out for the first two weeks, but if I could go back I wouldn't take this class again.

Overall, not a bad class. It's very easy to get an A- or B+, but it's very hard to get a solid A. Your grade is based on four two-page papers that you write, along with the midterm and the final. The class varies in difficulty, depending on who you get as your TA (your TA grades all your papers). My TA was a pretty tough grader, and he was reluctant to give out any high A's. This made it pretty difficult to get a solid A because the class is graded on a straight scale. Plus, the midterm and the final are both only ~30 questions, so missing two questions already puts you at an A-.

But grades aside, I think Professor Elliott is a great professor. She is very engaging and articulate speaker, which helped me stay awake when the material itself wasn't all that interesting.

Since the workload is light, I would recommend Phil 8 to anyone who wants a nice, easy class to balance their other hard courses.

Professor Elliott is very engaging when she teaches, despite not using any powerpoint/visuals during class. She writes everything on the board as she lectures.
I attended her office hours a few times and she was incredibly helpful. She is funny and super approachable.

What a Professor. She’s amazing and I would 100% recommend. The material is interesting and her execution of it is even more so. Her essays are easy and straightforward and her quizzes? Are very simple, if you even glanced at the reading the night before for like 5 mins.
Would definitely take another class with her.

If you have done philosophy, this will be very easy. If not, the difficulty will come mostly from learning to think like a philosopher.
You will write four two-paged papers, do some reading, and have a midterm and a final. You also have to participate in section.
This professor is very engaging, a terrific speaker, and very nice. Organized, too. You can't go wrong taking this class with her.

If you are not a philosophy major, philosophy is super weird. There were 4 essays that are unlike any other normal essays you write in college - no intro, no conclusion, just a thesis followed by facts. Two pages MAX, no more no less. The midterm and final were tricky just because the info itself is just hard to wrap your mind around. I got an A because I went to office hours for every paper and asked my TA what I needed to do with my paper to get an A. Papers are majority of your grade so even though my final/midterm average was like an 85, having a 95% paper average let me get an A

Terrific class, and taught very astutely. She is very good at explaining things clearly and obviously has a tried-and-true plan for her lectures. Expect only multiple choice on the midterm and final (not terribly challenging) and a few two-page papers. If you're good at analytical thinking, paying some attention during lecture (which should be fairly engaging if you care at all about philosophy), and following directions exactly, this is the class for you.

Okay so I don't know why professor Elliot has mixed reviews because she is by far one of the best professors I've had since I've been at UCLA. She is hilarious, and brings so much snarky (yet super funny) comments to the class which are both relevant for the material and engaging to the students. The class is made up of four 2 page papers (worth 60%) which are mostly regurgitating on the topics we learned about. These papers have enough time to make a good graded paper, just follow the rubric. There is one midterm (worth 10%), section is once a week and mandatory (worth 10%), and the final (worth 20%).

After talking with other friends who took philosophy classes, they all hated their professors. Although the material can get a bit boring sometimes because at the end of the day we are talking about how old white professors debate about science, professor Elliot makes it much more interesting. Also, there are some really interesting topics involving creation science, feminist values when conducting science, and other. Highly recommend, loved it! :)

As someone who doesn't like philosophy, this class was interesting but definitely quite confusing at times. Prof. Elliott has great energy but the topics covered in class are quite complex and it took time to get to the most important points of her lectures. She records audio only as well and using chalkboards in class so if you want to see visual demonstrations of material, you do have to go to lecture in person. There are four papers that make up 60% of your grade, midterm is 10%, final is 20%, and participation in section is 10%.
The papers are a bit difficult because they aren't normal literary analysis or scientific papers that most people would write in high school or in other college classes. I really only focused on the assigned readings for topics that we had to write about so that my writing was more nuanced and correct. For the last paper, I was at home with covid and barely went over a friend's notes from lecture about the material but still managed an A because we are supposed to so closely regurgitate knowledge that the professor gives us in lecture outlines.
The midterm and final are both multiple choice and can all be answered based on the information for the lecture outlines. I studied for both and did poorly, but to be fair, I was not studying as efficiently or as much as I probably could have. Thankfully I will end with an A in the class because of how much more weight the papers have.
Overall, the class is interesting but will require effort for the graded assignments. would not call this class an easy A by any means.