Georges Rey

This professor has taught: PHIL308T, PHIL309B, PHIL309X, PHIL318D, PHIL362, PHIL366, PHIL408R, PHIL481, PHIL490, PHIL660, PHIL808M, PHIL878B, PHIL879B, PHIL879G

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Georges Rey PHIL366 Anonymous 05/28/2023	I have taken three courses with Professor Rey and enjoyed all of them – but, I'll do my best to write an unbiased review. The material in all of his courses is tough for the average undergraduate: it's often difficult to determine what's actually going on in the readings and once you understand that, it's sometimes more difficult to understand why it matters. This is largely because most of the issues under consideration in Rey's courses are not only highly abstract (i.e. removed from "everyday" experiences) but ones where only extremely precise and delicate philosophical "solutions" are taken seriously. In short, the issues are rigorous. They require solid, consistent effort to understand that few students nowadays choose to exert. I say this because many average undergraduates come into philosophy courses expecting a lively discussion on speculative topics like "the meaning of life" where there is no right answer. This could not be farther from the truth about philosophy in general; Rey's courses are no exception. Rey primarily teaches courses in metaphysics and epistemology whose content includes a wide range of interconnected philosophical disciplines such as the philosophy of mathematics, logic, and mind/psychology. Let me be frank: this stuff is hard. These issues, as I stated earlier, are not easy to grasp or apply. But they are extremely rewarding to learn about. If you pay close attention to the lectures and readings, and ask questions about what you don't understand (make sure you do this), you likely learn more than you have in any other course. And what you learn is not merely technical philosophical disputes distinct from other scientific domains: you will learn a lot about a lot, much more than I can describe here. But you need to engage with the material rather than just try to absorb it – you will get little out of Rey's courses as a passive learner. What I am trying to say by all of this is that you should only take Rey's courses if you are a dedicated, active learner who is really interested in learning in general or learning some (pretty intricate but revealing) philosophy. As other reviewers have mentioned, he lectures with little "visual" presentation and usually just sits at the front of the classroom and speaks for the class duration. But this is common in upper-level philosophy classes. He lectures assuming that everyone has done the readings and will ask questions about them. If you are to take his courses seriously, try your best to work through the readings before class and ask questions about them in class. You will likely be lost if you haven't done so. His exams are difficult because they require extremely clear answers to complicated prompts. But these prompts are always included in a study guide distributed a few days before the exam – so you can ask him any question you want from the study guide. Just make sure to do it before the exam so you can study based on his answer. He hosts oral exams (as a replacement for written ones), but only do these if you are overly prepared (i.e. if you really know your stuff). These are harder than written exams, but very good practice if you desire to actually understand the material to the extent that you can articulate it well. The essays are hard too: start them about two weeks before they are due (and finish them one week before, making changes daily until you submit them). Ask him questions about the essay during office hours because he tends to provide little explicit guidance on what your responses should look like. The best advice I have for any serious writing in philosophy: be as clear as possible. As I hope this review has made it obvious that I only recommend a few types of students take courses with Professor Rey: "overachievers," people who are very smart, people who love to learn, and people who are very interested in philosophy (particularly the types I mentioned).
Georges Rey Expecting an A Anonymous 02/14/2021	spectacularly self-righteous. the type of person to unironically prefer if I used the term "epistemically overconfident" in this review. Seemed friendly enough in the first day, but really, really proud of himself.
Georges Rey PHIL309B Expecting a W Anonymous 10/25/2020	Man is he bad... first the lectures are unbearable and so long. Then he gives you hundreds of pages in readings including his own poorly written book. Finally the exam is half a writing assignment which if your lucky you understand and perform well on, but another half is an in person meeting where he grills you on questions he picks until he's satisfied. It is by far the worst class I have ever taken and my first withdrawal in 4 years at UMD, please take my advice and do not take any course with this professor.
Georges Rey PHIL366 Expecting a B Anonymous 05/09/2019	Can't really say anything bad about Professor Rey. The course was intellectually engaging. He gives you pop quizzes that are just one question sometimes but you don't have to really do well on those to do well in class. He gives you review sheets with a series of terms to define and essay questions to write (just a paragraph suffices). And those same questions will show up on the exam, so if you do the review sheet then go to him to grade that, you'll do marvelously well on his exams. He actually recommends you to do this. The class is basically taught while following along to his book so if you don't explain the concepts the way he understands them then you'll lose points. If you don't get a good exam grade, go to him and ask him to review it again, he will give you a lot of points back. I personally went up two letter grades because he gave me back 12 points. He makes mistakes and sometimes grades to harshly, and the second look he takes really does help! Professor Rey is worth taking this class with. You'll think hard on the subjects at hand, and if it goes over your head, don't worry he encourages students to take up as much of his time as possible so you can understand the concepts.
Georges Rey PHIL308T Expecting a B- Anonymous 11/30/2011	If you do not care about your grade all that much, this class is worth every minute. He is a very engaging and intelligent professor, truly cares that the class is able to understand the topics, but as mentioned before the tests require very specific definitions.
Georges Rey PHIL308T Anonymous 04/25/2011	Rey is a pretty decent guy. He's not a great professor, though. He tends to ramble and get excited about topics that are only ancillary to testable material. Not only is this a poor strategy for teaching a graded class, but it also makes him occasionally difficult to follow. Still, he's intelligent and well-intentioned so if you don't understand what he says in class he won't mind at all if you ask him some questions, and he'll likely answer them in a way you can understand. He gives out review sheets that have everything you need to know for the exam. The only problem is that your source of information is his rather shoddy presently unpublished (and consequently unedited) textbook and the lecture notes, which aren't always clear. The review sheets are both good and bad, for obvious reasons. If you study ahead of time, he doesn't mind if you send him (short) emailed questions. (I never studied ahead of time, so I can't attest the strength of that particular claim.) Class with him is kind of a crapshoot. He takes it easy in lecture, and I personally find the material pretty easy, but his tests emphasize his own definitions and (sometimes rather unique) contributions to the field, which can get frustrating when you're trying to study without adequate notes. It's hard to say if I'd advise people to take him or not. He's certainly a viable alternative to a professor with terrible reviews, but on the whole (considering both his teaching style and the tests) I could only give a lukewarm recommendation.