PHIL230 | PlanetTerp

Information	Review
Jerrold Levinson PHIL230 Expecting an A cthiell 12/06/2012	Dr. Levinson...seems like such a nice guy, but good lord can he bore the hell out of you. He is a very good philosophy professor...supposedly. Guess you have to be a philosophy major to think that. You will find yourself in lecture, falling asleep, wondering why you took this class, everyday. He will literally talk in language that makes note taking impossible the entire time. He will walk around the room like he is lost and look out the window babbling on about nothing really. If you are a philosophy major, you might think otherwise. I'm an A student and business major here, and if you are thinking of taking this as a core, don't. I have confidence you will not enjoy it. I took this because I'd never taken a philosophy class and thought I'd take it for kicks and satisfy my HA core at the same time. So if you have interest in taking a philosophy for kicks, don't take this one. It really is useless. And for an HA credit, they're all going to be bascally pointless, but after taking this, anything might've been better. Guess what else Levinson likes to do? Assign the final paper, due on the day of the final exam! Yea,because we all love doing papers while studying for our exams ya know...said nobody ever... HoweverI don't think he did this on purpose. I just don't think he has a clue what goes on in the real world and lost track of what day it was, honestly. So while I wish I could be studying for finals, I have to look at 3 articles by 3 philosophers, and analyze their theories on what is art. Sounds like just so much fun, right? I'm doing this right now and to take out my frustration I thought I'd warn everyone on this class to save them from this in the future. If you need to take core classes, take ones that actually reflect on real life and you can put forth skills learned in that class, in the real world. Take something useful, not on the study of how to be poor (philosphy). This class really does suck, and Levinson...really nice guy, terrible teacher. Regards, to whoever is thinking of taking this class, best of luck...
Jerrold Levinson PHIL230 Expecting an A+ xenonscreams 01/11/2012	I'm not a philosophy major and took this as a CORE. I thought most of the work for the course was fairly easy. The midterm was a breeze and the first paper was very easy to write. The final was a little tricky but apparently graded very kindly, and the second paper could be made difficult depending on one's argument, but was definitely graded fairly. The readings, on the other hand, were quite difficult at times. The most frustrating aspect of how this course was shaped was that many of the difficult readings were clustered together toward the end of the course, while many of the easy readings were given too much time and attention toward the beginning of the course. Nonetheless, despite having not completely finished some of the readings, I was able to fill in some of the gaps through lecture and discussion. Levinson is a decent lecturer. Sometimes I got bored. But when I paid attention, I really got a lot out of his lectures. Like someone else mentioned, Logan Fletcher is an awesome TA. His discussion sessions were totally worth getting up on a Friday. I also didn't feel like I had to hold back when I wrote papers. I don't know if that is a feature of philosophy classes in general, or a feature of this particular class and of the TA. I mentioned medium-rare steak, Snooki, and Rebecca Black in one of my papers to support a few points with modern examples. I was reluctant to do so even though they were ideal examples for what I was arguing, since I wasn't sure if I would be taken seriously. I got a 100 so I guess it was fine. I like feeling like I can be myself when I write. As soon as I have to pretend to be something I'm not, the paper becomes fabricated rather than created.
Jerrold Levinson PHIL230 Expecting an A Anonymous 04/02/2008	Typical philosophy class and professor. If you don't like philosophy, you'll be bored out of your mind, because it got boring for even PHIL majors. Workload isn't too hard, and tests were pretty good, but it was weird to have multiple choice in a philosophy class. He's willing to accomodate students when they need it and its pretty easy to catch up on work and lectures you missed.

Jerrold Levinson
PHIL230

Expecting an A
cthiell
12/06/2012

Dr. Levinson...seems like such a nice guy, but good lord can he bore the hell out of you. He is a very good philosophy professor...supposedly. Guess you have to be a philosophy major to think that. You will find yourself in lecture, falling asleep, wondering why you took this class, everyday. He will literally talk in language that makes note taking impossible the entire time. He will walk around the room like he is lost and look out the window babbling on about nothing really. If you are a philosophy major, you might think otherwise. I'm an A student and business major here, and if you are thinking of taking this as a core, don't. I have confidence you will not enjoy it. I took this because I'd never taken a philosophy class and thought I'd take it for kicks and satisfy my HA core at the same time. So if you have interest in taking a philosophy for kicks, don't take this one. It really is useless. And for an HA credit, they're all going to be bascally pointless, but after taking this, anything might've been better. Guess what else Levinson likes to do? Assign the final paper, due on the day of the final exam! Yea,because we all love doing papers while studying for our exams ya know...said nobody ever... HoweverI don't think he did this on purpose. I just don't think he has a clue what goes on in the real world and lost track of what day it was, honestly. So while I wish I could be studying for finals, I have to look at 3 articles by 3 philosophers, and analyze their theories on what is art. Sounds like just so much fun, right? I'm doing this right now and to take out my frustration I thought I'd warn everyone on this class to save them from this in the future. If you need to take core classes, take ones that actually reflect on real life and you can put forth skills learned in that class, in the real world. Take something useful, not on the study of how to be poor (philosphy). This class really does suck, and Levinson...really nice guy, terrible teacher. Regards, to whoever is thinking of taking this class, best of luck...

Jerrold Levinson
PHIL230

Expecting an A+
xenonscreams
01/11/2012

I'm not a philosophy major and took this as a CORE. I thought most of the work for the course was fairly easy. The midterm was a breeze and the first paper was very easy to write. The final was a little tricky but apparently graded very kindly, and the second paper could be made difficult depending on one's argument, but was definitely graded fairly. The readings, on the other hand, were quite difficult at times. The most frustrating aspect of how this course was shaped was that many of the difficult readings were clustered together toward the end of the course, while many of the easy readings were given too much time and attention toward the beginning of the course. Nonetheless, despite having not completely finished some of the readings, I was able to fill in some of the gaps through lecture and discussion. Levinson is a decent lecturer. Sometimes I got bored. But when I paid attention, I really got a lot out of his lectures. Like someone else mentioned, Logan Fletcher is an awesome TA. His discussion sessions were totally worth getting up on a Friday. I also didn't feel like I had to hold back when I wrote papers. I don't know if that is a feature of philosophy classes in general, or a feature of this particular class and of the TA. I mentioned medium-rare steak, Snooki, and Rebecca Black in one of my papers to support a few points with modern examples. I was reluctant to do so even though they were ideal examples for what I was arguing, since I wasn't sure if I would be taken seriously. I got a 100 so I guess it was fine. I like feeling like I can be myself when I write. As soon as I have to pretend to be something I'm not, the paper becomes fabricated rather than created.

Jerrold Levinson
PHIL230

Expecting an A
Anonymous
04/02/2008

Typical philosophy class and professor. If you don't like philosophy, you'll be bored out of your mind, because it got boring for even PHIL majors. Workload isn't too hard, and tests were pretty good, but it was weird to have multiple choice in a philosophy class. He's willing to accomodate students when they need it and its pretty easy to catch up on work and lectures you missed.

Reviews for PHIL230