Take Phil7 with Gabriel Greenberg! He is a very engaging lecturer who explains things very clearly. I had a lot of fun this quarter.

Why I like this professor and why you should take Phil. 7 from him:

Mark Greenberg was an amazing professor and I highly recommend taking philosophy 7 with him. The first day of class was confusing, but don't let that scare you! Mark was more than willing to meet with students out of class, set up review sessions, and he even went through the trouble of posting ALL of his lectures online.

Let's be honest. Philosophy is confusing, and philosophy of the mind forces you to think about thinking -- a difficult supposition. Mark made sure to review every lecture and take questions before moving on. Professor Greenberg also used silly examples to keep students interested. Example while talking about whether or not animals feel pain, he used the example of stabbing a puppy through the stomach! AAAAAA!

Also, there is very little reading for this class. We usually read less than 20 pages a week. The reading is very straightfoward in that it's written in plain, uncomplicated english (as philosophy should be), but the issues it talks about are deep and complex, so you have to read SLOWLY.

How to succeed:

The best way to succeed in this class is this:

1. Mark assigns homework weekly (it's very very short) and they only check for completion, but if you actually try to do a good job on it, you'll pick things up much morequickly.

2. Start working on your paper early, as it counts for about 30% of your grade, and go over it with your T.A. as many times as possible.

3. Go to section. Somethings are confusing, but the sections are designed to clarify the lecture, and they usually do a good job summarizing everything.

WHY YOU SHOULD BE WARY! :

This is not an easy GE. I took this class as a GE and because I'm interested in philosophy. Previous teachers created the reputation that this was an easy class, and while it's not very hard, it's not a breeze either. It requires some very deep thinking, not just memorization. Take this class if you want a challenge and you want to expand your understanding of the world, not because you need to get a class out of the way.

FINAL GRADE RECEIVED: A
T.A. : Jorah

Greenberg was a pretty interesting teacher. Often times he was able to keep me awake, but sometimes his lectures become so complicated and dry that you just say screw it and go to sleep. Sometimes after I do the reading, then walk into class completely understanding the material, then walk out of class completely confused and thinking "Wtf?". I had Kindermann as my TA, he's pretty good so I'd recommended him, but I'm sure that they're all decent. The only stuff that's graded is a single paper (not that hard to write) and the final. The final was easy for me, but I studied a ton the two days before.

I'm not sure how the other Phil 7 teachers are, but Mark Greenberg is an acceptable teacher for this class. Just make sure that you read the books (that's where you'll get most of your understanding from), and then actually pay attention in his lectures, since that's where the final questions come from.