PHIL245 | PlanetTerp

Information	Review
Antong Liu PHIL245 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/12/2024	Super chill professor. Definitely knows what he's talking about and makes the subject more approachable for students. The TA, Jackson, is lowkey a super harsh grader but that's not the professor's fault.
Benjamin Fan PHIL245 Expecting an A- Anonymous 01/25/2024	I took a short Winter online class, meaning it's only 3 weeks and a lot of materials thrown at you in this short amount of time. But he did lecture videos and daily 1 question quiz that make sure we are following along. It seems rushed but still not as difficult as I thought. The readings are a bit long but since his videos are less than 30 mins each it's easy to digest and get the basic concept of the readings. He is not an easy grader but not a harsh one either, just make sure to look at thesis paper examples before working on your own final paper. I got A- from this fast 3 weeks course but I think this was pretty easy to get through and it definitely helped think more critically. Overall, I would take his class again if I need to and I think it is a somewhat easy PHIL class.
Xu Jiang PHIL245 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 12/23/2023	Avoid taking a class with this guy at all costs. He has some weird superiority complex that manifests in both his "teaching" and his grading. His feedback on assignments consists of empty criticisms that serve as no guidance in amending your work. For example, this class has three essays which ask you to dissect philosophers' arguments and explain your own position on the matter. On one of my essays, Xu left the comment "this is just your opinion which I do not care." Absolutely appalling.
Antong Liu PHIL245 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/20/2023	Dr. Liu is a great lecturer who takes dense and confusing philosophical texts and makes them digestible while raising interesting questions. I always found his classes to be very interesting. TA grades essays rather harshly but other than that I loved this class and teacher.
Antong Liu PHIL245 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/18/2023	Great Professor. He does his best to make long and somewhat boring lecture slides interesting. If you are slightly interested in philosophy this is a good and interesting class to take. The class is made up of 3 essays which are each 205 of your grade, one question open note quizzes that you just need to get 7/13 right to get a 100, and a participation grade for the discussions. For the essays, I didn't read the whole book, only the chapters I needed to and it wasn't bad at all. Attendance isn't mandatory for classes because he tells you which classes there will be quizzes in the syllabus and grading on the essays isn't very hard either.
Antong Liu PHIL245 Expecting an A+ ppeterp 12/16/2023	I liked his class but couldn't keep up with the readings, which was a shame because it was an interesting subject with really interesting readings. But most of the information was covered very well in his slides which he conveniently uploaded to canvas. The grading structure is heavily dependent (60%) on 3 papers, but to my knowledge, those were graded by the TA. There were also in-class quizzes that made up the rest but they're not hard at all and he makes you only have to do like 9/12 to get 100%. The rest of the grade is discussion participation. I liked the class I think the topics we covered were pretty interesting, relevant, and well-examined.
Antong Liu PHIL245 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/08/2023	Professor Liu is very knowledgeable for this class and makes each lecture easy to understand. He understands that it is only a two hundred level class, so his slides are really comprehensible. He is always open to questions. There are weekly quizzes (multiple choice/1 question) that can be a bit tricky but if you understand the lectures and study once more the slides, they are easy to get correct. Do not take this class for gen ed and if you don't honestly enjoy philosophy because all of the content is kind of complicated and will be difficult if you are not into further thinking. Do not take this class if you don't like writing. There are only 3 short papers, but your writing must be clear. The TA, Xu, is a very generous grader so if you try and answer all prompts you can easily get an A on the papers. I really enjoyed this class
Antong Liu PHIL245 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/15/2023	Very knowledgeable and does his best to make a dense, boring philosophical text interesting and engaging. Works. If you are the slightest bit interested in political philosophy, this is a really good class. People say theres a lot of reading, but I barely did any reading and only read the sections of the books we have to write essays on. Workload is negligible, 3 essays for the whole course, participation in discussion, and weekly 1-question quizzes that are open everything. There are like 13 quizzes over the whole course, get 7 of them right and you get full credit. Liu is a great professor and this is a great course.
Antong Liu PHIL245 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/27/2022	Dr. Antong Liu has a clear love for philosophy and brought warmth and humanity to what could have easily been stale history lectures. He worked hard to keep his lectures clear and organized, even when topics became convoluted. Despite being constrained by a content-heavy course and a rigid lecture format, it was abundantly clear that he has a deep passion for philosophy and social philosophy. I came to appreciate his teaching more as the semester progressed and I recommend that anyone who has the opportunity to take a course with Dr. Liu's does so.
Antong Liu PHIL245 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/23/2022	Very good lecturer, though the TAs grade everything from what I could tell. I would recommend just presenting the first paper to get an automatic A in the discussion section and then skipping the rest as I did not find them useful at all. Fair grading.
Antong Liu PHIL245 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/16/2022	lectures are very thorough, my TA really helped carry my grade though.
Antong Liu PHIL245 Expecting an A Anonymous 04/27/2022	(took class Fall 2021) Despite being a political philosophy class, you really didn't have to read anything for this class, in fact he starts off the class saying you don't have to read anything. During the lectures, he explained complex philosophical texts and concepts very well in a way that was much more understandable, since the actual texts can be very hard to understand and read. The only major assignments are three five-page essays, which can be a bit difficult, but they can mostly be done from the lectures without reading the books. The other are the weekly quizzes, but each of these are just one question, multiple choice, and any questions on those are covered in the lecture. You also only need to get 7/13 quizzes right to get the full points, but if you get 12/13 you get an extra 1% added to your grade, and for 13/13 (which is the only reason I got an A instead of an A-). You can tell he's very passionate, and I would highly recommend going to the last, optional lecture.
Antong Liu PHIL245 Anonymous 04/18/2022	Liu is an excellent lecturer and just an overall easy-going and great guy. I had some extenuating circumstances that affected my participation in the class and he went above and beyond what was expected to help accommodate me. Grades fairly, posts all the slides, and make these difficult topics super easy to grasp. One of my favorite professors of all time.

Antong Liu
PHIL245

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/12/2024

Super chill professor. Definitely knows what he's talking about and makes the subject more approachable for students. The TA, Jackson, is lowkey a super harsh grader but that's not the professor's fault.

Benjamin Fan
PHIL245

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
01/25/2024

I took a short Winter online class, meaning it's only 3 weeks and a lot of materials thrown at you in this short amount of time. But he did lecture videos and daily 1 question quiz that make sure we are following along. It seems rushed but still not as difficult as I thought. The readings are a bit long but since his videos are less than 30 mins each it's easy to digest and get the basic concept of the readings. He is not an easy grader but not a harsh one either, just make sure to look at thesis paper examples before working on your own final paper. I got A- from this fast 3 weeks course but I think this was pretty easy to get through and it definitely helped think more critically. Overall, I would take his class again if I need to and I think it is a somewhat easy PHIL class.

Xu Jiang
PHIL245

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
12/23/2023

Avoid taking a class with this guy at all costs. He has some weird superiority complex that manifests in both his "teaching" and his grading. His feedback on assignments consists of empty criticisms that serve as no guidance in amending your work. For example, this class has three essays which ask you to dissect philosophers' arguments and explain your own position on the matter. On one of my essays, Xu left the comment "this is just your opinion which I do not care." Absolutely appalling.

Antong Liu
PHIL245

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
12/20/2023

Dr. Liu is a great lecturer who takes dense and confusing philosophical texts and makes them digestible while raising interesting questions. I always found his classes to be very interesting. TA grades essays rather harshly but other than that I loved this class and teacher.

Antong Liu
PHIL245

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
12/18/2023

Great Professor. He does his best to make long and somewhat boring lecture slides interesting. If you are slightly interested in philosophy this is a good and interesting class to take. The class is made up of 3 essays which are each 205 of your grade, one question open note quizzes that you just need to get 7/13 right to get a 100, and a participation grade for the discussions. For the essays, I didn't read the whole book, only the chapters I needed to and it wasn't bad at all. Attendance isn't mandatory for classes because he tells you which classes there will be quizzes in the syllabus and grading on the essays isn't very hard either.

Antong Liu
PHIL245

Expecting an A+
ppeterp
12/16/2023

I liked his class but couldn't keep up with the readings, which was a shame because it was an interesting subject with really interesting readings. But most of the information was covered very well in his slides which he conveniently uploaded to canvas. The grading structure is heavily dependent (60%) on 3 papers, but to my knowledge, those were graded by the TA. There were also in-class quizzes that made up the rest but they're not hard at all and he makes you only have to do like 9/12 to get 100%. The rest of the grade is discussion participation. I liked the class I think the topics we covered were pretty interesting, relevant, and well-examined.

Antong Liu
PHIL245

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
12/08/2023

Professor Liu is very knowledgeable for this class and makes each lecture easy to understand. He understands that it is only a two hundred level class, so his slides are really comprehensible. He is always open to questions. There are weekly quizzes (multiple choice/1 question) that can be a bit tricky but if you understand the lectures and study once more the slides, they are easy to get correct. Do not take this class for gen ed and if you don't honestly enjoy philosophy because all of the content is kind of complicated and will be difficult if you are not into further thinking. Do not take this class if you don't like writing. There are only 3 short papers, but your writing must be clear. The TA, Xu, is a very generous grader so if you try and answer all prompts you can easily get an A on the papers. I really enjoyed this class

Antong Liu
PHIL245

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
05/15/2023

Very knowledgeable and does his best to make a dense, boring philosophical text interesting and engaging. Works. If you are the slightest bit interested in political philosophy, this is a really good class. People say theres a lot of reading, but I barely did any reading and only read the sections of the books we have to write essays on. Workload is negligible, 3 essays for the whole course, participation in discussion, and weekly 1-question quizzes that are open everything. There are like 13 quizzes over the whole course, get 7 of them right and you get full credit. Liu is a great professor and this is a great course.

Antong Liu
PHIL245

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
12/27/2022

Dr. Antong Liu has a clear love for philosophy and brought warmth and humanity to what could have easily been stale history lectures. He worked hard to keep his lectures clear and organized, even when topics became convoluted. Despite being constrained by a content-heavy course and a rigid lecture format, it was abundantly clear that he has a deep passion for philosophy and social philosophy. I came to appreciate his teaching more as the semester progressed and I recommend that anyone who has the opportunity to take a course with Dr. Liu's does so.

Antong Liu
PHIL245

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/23/2022

Very good lecturer, though the TAs grade everything from what I could tell. I would recommend just presenting the first paper to get an automatic A in the discussion section and then skipping the rest as I did not find them useful at all. Fair grading.

Antong Liu
PHIL245

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/16/2022

lectures are very thorough, my TA really helped carry my grade though.

Antong Liu
PHIL245

Expecting an A
Anonymous
04/27/2022

(took class Fall 2021) Despite being a political philosophy class, you really didn't have to read anything for this class, in fact he starts off the class saying you don't have to read anything. During the lectures, he explained complex philosophical texts and concepts very well in a way that was much more understandable, since the actual texts can be very hard to understand and read. The only major assignments are three five-page essays, which can be a bit difficult, but they can mostly be done from the lectures without reading the books. The other are the weekly quizzes, but each of these are just one question, multiple choice, and any questions on those are covered in the lecture. You also only need to get 7/13 quizzes right to get the full points, but if you get 12/13 you get an extra 1% added to your grade, and for 13/13 (which is the only reason I got an A instead of an A-). You can tell he's very passionate, and I would highly recommend going to the last, optional lecture.

Antong Liu
PHIL245

Anonymous
04/18/2022

Liu is an excellent lecturer and just an overall easy-going and great guy. I had some extenuating circumstances that affected my participation in the class and he went above and beyond what was expected to help accommodate me. Grades fairly, posts all the slides, and make these difficult topics super easy to grasp. One of my favorite professors of all time.

Reviews for PHIL245