Taking a philosophy course

On this page I am gathering tips for students who might not have taken any, or many, philosophy courses before. Consider checking back regularly for updates.

General

  1. You should expect readings to be difficult. To properly understand, you should expect to need to read each item more than once.

Writing assignments

  1. Be sure you answer the question that you are actually assigned to answer, not a closely related question, such as “write all you know about topic X”.

  2. Try imagining you’re explaining the philosophical material to a fellow undergraduate student who has taken a philosophy class, but not this particular philosophy class. Thus, you should explain thoroughly all the concepts that you could not expect such a student to already know – all of the new concepts introduced by the authors we’ve been reading in this particular class.

Office hours

  1. You do not need to ask for an appointment unless the syllabus says “by appointment only”. Just show up at the times given.

  2. Office hours are for one-on-one help, not group review sessions.