AY21/22, Semester 2
Module Type: Lecture
Lecture Size: ~45 students
Lecturer: Professor Abelard Podgorski
Grading Structure:
Forum participation - 20%
Weekly reading quizzes (2 MCQ/week) - 15%
Dialogue Critique - 20%
Original Socratic Dialogue (1500 words) - 20%
Final paper (1500 words) - 25%
Review #1
Module Content:
An introduction to Ancient Greek philosophical thought of Socrates and Plato, told through the Socratic dialogues. Major philosophical concepts are introduced in the dialogues, from philosophy of religion (Euthyphro dilemma) to epistemology (what does it mean to know something?) to metaphysics (Plato’s theory of the forms). Lectures: Conducted once a week via zoom. Reading quiz is to be completed at 2359 the day before the scheduled lecture. Abelard does a pretty good job in dissecting the content to make it easier to understand. Prof is also very passionate about the subject matter.
Assignment Structure:
Weekly quizzes (15%): 2 MCQ/week
LumiNUS forum (20%): make 6 forum posts throughout the semester.
Dialogue critique (20%): short assignment where we take an argument from a list of given philosophical dialogues (may or may not be related to Socrates/Plato) and reconstruct it into premise/conclusion form. Afterwards, add a few lines to the dialogue to expand on/critique the argument. No word limit or requirement given, I wrote ~400 words I think.
Original Socratic dialogue (20%): write an original Socratic Dialogue on any philosophical topic (does not need to be related to Socrates/Plato). 1500 words.
Final essay (25%): a standard philosophy paper. Prof didn’t give any guiding questions so we were free to write on any topic(s) covered in lectures.
As a whole, I think prof is pretty generous with the marks he gives.
Tutor Feedback:
Tutorials are also conducted by Abelard. He focuses a lot on ‘doing philosophy’ so tutorial sessions are mostly centred on fun activities using the Socratic method, while reiterating the lecture content at the same time. Tutorials is pretty much Plato’s Academy in the 21st Century. He makes sure that tutorial classes are never boring. I’ve never dreaded a single tutorial class!
Weekly Workload:
In general, we read one Socratic dialogue a week, except for The Republic which was spread across several weeks. Readings in the first half of the course are relatively short (~15 pages) and straightforward. Later texts can be quite long and slightly difficult to read (50 pages ish without paragraphing). Some later readings are also pretty difficult to digest in terms of content. For some of the longer readings, prof will point out more important sections we can focus on for those readings, in order to make our lives easier. Weekly reading quizzes are short and pretty straightforward, they’re very doable as long as you do the reading. I would say workload is pretty light as a whole.
Expected Grade: A-/A
Actual Grade: A
Recommended For:
Those who are interested in Ancient Greek philosophy; those who are new to philosophy.
Other Comments / Tips:
Not too difficult a philosophy mod for non-majors/new majors. I enjoyed this class very much! Solid prof
AY19/20, Semester 1
Module Type: Lecture
Lecture Size: ~ 30 students
Lecturer: Professor Abelard Podgorski
Grading Structure:
Forum participation - 15%
Term paper - 30%
Finals - 40%
Weekly Quizzes - 15%
Review #1
Module Content:
N/A
Assignment Structure:
Weekly quiz on LumiNUS about the readings; final exams were 3 choose 2 multi-part essay questions. Finals were also open-book.
Tutor Feedback:
N/A
Weekly Workload:
Very manageable. Professor Abelard cut down the length of the readings on a number of occasions because they were too daunting.
Expected Grade: A
Actual Grade: A+
Recommended For:
Those who wish to learn more about ancient Greece, and those new to philosophy mods (Abelard goes through basic philosophy techniques for beginners like me!)
Other Comments / Tips:
N/A
Review #2
Module Content:
Greek Philosophy from Socrates and Plato: reading of selected Plato's dialogues, concerning mainly ethics but also interplays with ideas of political philosophy, epistemology (Can knowledge be taught?), philosophy of language (definitions), and philosophy of religion (Euthyphro dilemma and divine command theory; the existence of a soul).
Assignment Structure:
Weekly quizzes: 2 MCQ questions;
LumiNUS forum posts/responses (minimum 6) - a space to ask further questions on module content and apply it to other matters or to clarify concepts/ideas/examples;
1500-word assignment in the form of either a dialogue or an academic essay;
Final exam (open-book) divided into 2 sections
Tutor Feedback:
Abelard Podgorski;
He is really interesting and engaging. He explains things very clearly and is a fun prof (with his slides decorated with memes/pokemon/MVs). Also a very approachable person, didn't mind staying back after lecture to answer questions. Teaching style is very helpful, although he tends to overrun the time for lectures.
Weekly Workload:
The readings for the second half of the semester was heavier because the dialogues were much longer; readings can be sometimes confusing and convoluted due to the translation from Greek but generally much more readable than modern academic philosophy papers in other philosophy modules and much more engaging because of the dialogue format.
Assignments were not too long and also the opportunity of being able to write it in dialogue format makes it more interesting and less boring than the usual academic essays.
Expected Grade: B+/A-
Actual Grade: A
Recommended For:
Those who wish to understand the history of Western philosophy and those who wants to have an overview of the important ideas across most of philosophy - ethics, politics, religion, language, knowledge.
Other Comments / Tips:
N/A