The material in this class is so abstract that you will hardly fully understand any of what is covered. However Smith is such a nice professor and was as helpful as one could be about such an abstract field. I've heard worse things about other Philos 8 professors and I feel like Smith does his best so I'd recommend anyone who has to take this class to take it with him

I took this class because I needed an easy GE and it ended up being a lot more content than I was expecting. With no philosophy experience beforehand, I found myself confused a lot of the time, and pre-recorded lectures didn't make it much easier. However, the quizzes were open note and questions were more definitional so they were pretty easy. The only hard part were the essays because the prompts were so lengthy and basically rambled on. My TA's office hours were the most helpful in clarifying though and it ended up paying off so I'd say take this if you're a strong writer!

There is a PDF of the textbook, which is great. There's not much material, in my opinion, but the material can get confusing and convoluted. Luckily, Professor Smith's handouts (posted on CCLE) are very, very clear and tell you exactly what you need to know in a succinct way. Lectures weren't that interesting imo, but that's more of the fault of the philosophy as a discipline than of the professor's. I did find his lecture examples cool to think about, though.

You don't need to know a lot about philosophy or science beforehand, so it's not a particularly hard GE. HOWEVER, the essay(s) is/are subjectively graded by the TAs. So my biggest piece of advice is to GO TO OFFICE HOURS AND ASK TONS AND TONS AND TONS OF QUESTIONS ABOUT YOUR IDEAS FOR THE ESSAY. get a good idea of what you want to write about a couple weeks beforehand. Have some examples of the concept you're writing about in your essay. Know the concept like you know the back of your hand. Then go to office hours and ask your TA if there is even something tiny you need clarification on in your essay. Philosophy essays can get really confusingly written if you don't ASK YOUR TA. So please go to office hours and make sure you know exactly what the TA wants and doesn't want.

Idk if I would totally recommend this class to anyone. Yes, I did end up with an A- I wanted, but I don't think I really learned anything from this class. The grade breakdown was super simple: 50% quiz grade, 25% midterm paper grade, 25% final paper grade; eventually it changed to 50% quiz grade with 1 lowest quiz grade getting dropped and 50% paper grade for whichever paper grade you got better. The content was extremely confusing & boring; I tried watching lectures to have a better understanding of the content, but it did not help so I stopped. The weekly quiz were super easy and doable even without watching the lectures as long as you had the notes the professor gives out with you; one of the quiz was really hard though, I took this class only b/c it's a pre-req so I wouldn't recommend to anyone who's trying to take it as an easy GE or is not required to take it. The material is not easy to understand, and the midterm paper topics were very challenging. The grading for the paper did not seem lenient to me at all, considering majority of my classmates, including myself, have never taken a philosophy class before. This class did stress me out b/c the grading scheme (50% quiz grade, 50% midterm/final paper grade) pressured me to complete everything perfectly, and the content was confusing. I ended up with an A- just b/c I got a 100% on all the quizzes (thank god), but if I messed up the quizzes or did worse on my midterm paper, I definitely would've considered dropping this class. However, I really did appreciate how the considerate the professor was of his students by making the final paper optional.

I thought this class was both easy and super interesting. Professor Smith is extremely knowledgeable which makes the lectures engaging, although attendance is not manageable. I never bought the textbook and I don't feel as though I needed it at all. I also recommend going to office hours for help on the papers. Otherwise, the workload in this class is super manageable.

The class is fairly easy, attendance is not mandatory, with him posting his lecture notes online. No need to get the book, it just complicates everything. the grade consists of midterm, essay, and final with each being a third of your grade. both tests are easy if one looks either looks at the lecture notes or listens in lecture, and then brings up particular questions with the TA. If your TA is good you may be able to study purely off of their packets and discussion without the need for lecture. The essay might seem daunting but if you talk to your TA and the professor ahead of time you will be able to get a good grade. The problem with this class is that philosophy papers are graded fairly hard and the way to get an A is to get very good grades on the tests, which is not that difficult.

Used one textbook and readings did matter, the exams were pretty standard and as long as you understood the concept, you would be fine. Professor Smith sometimes rambles and then you get lost, he doesn't really say anything if you come in late. Makes a lot of jokes and it's a comfortable class if you can grasp your head around somewhat abstract concepts.

I would say you should take this class if you like philosophy and science but if not, then don't do it. I liked the professor and all but the class was too abstract for me personally, to wrap my head around it. The textbook for me was available in ebook form and like cheaper.

A midterm, essay, and final was the way it went for me.

While this class is extremely simple and easy to follow, and is a generally easy GE, your entire grade essentially boils down to the paper. Unfortunately, in the words of my TA, "even though [I] worked very hard on it, it isn't what [she was] looking for." As other reviews say, philosophy papers are very much unlike every other paper you have written, and your grade is entirely at the discretion of your TA for these papers. If you don't do a lot of work to find out exactly how your TA wants the paper written, best of luck. In fairness, I didn't do as much as I could have to get in touch with my TA to make sure my paper was as she wanted it, but when she gave me back the revisions to the paper, the revisions were VERY light, and I received a 70%.
Additionally, if you are not deeply interested philosophy, this class will be the most boring thing you've ever sat through. This is not to discredit Sheldon Smith; he's a great lecturer and a funny dude, but he won't respond to your emails, and his material is, unfortunately, absurdly boring. I did very well on both of the tests, but ultimately received a B- in the class because I got the wrong TA. Beware.

If you are looking for an easy GE, you have found the right class. The professor is extremely clear and helpful in his lectures. The tests are extremely easy as long as you have a basic understanding of the material (which there isn't much of). The readings are not exhaustive and are really all you need to understand the concepts. The hardest part of this easy class is the term paper. I say this because the class is so damn easy.

Jokes aside, you still should go to class and make sure you have a thorough understanding of the philosophical concepts if you want an A.

I really liked this class. It's a good Philos credit for science people and a good science credit for those not so sciencey. Prof. Smith is funny but sometimes his lectures are too long and drawn out. He often goes off tangent but it's still interesting stuff. I would not say that lectures are necessary, but he goes through the material step by step, so it's really clear. The book was totally needed and took a while to read and take notes, but it's really all you need for this class. The course is set up like this:

1/3 Midterm
1/3 Final
1/3 Paper

The paper is the hardest part of the course for sure. It brought down most people's grades that I asked. The final was as little cumulative as possible, he asked maybe one question from the midterm review and it was related to the material in the final. Get help on the paper from your TA, mine looked at it and gave pretty decent feedback that definitely helped. Philosophy papers are really different from that of basically any other subject, so do your research and get help and I don't see why you couldn't get at least a B.