Taught by: Dr David Merry
AY 25/26, Sem 1
Content (Structure/Organization):
The course curriculum is intuitively structured by splitting content between ancient and contemporary philosophers. Later seminars often uses and builds upon knowledge and concept from previous readings. There are frequent checkpoints throughout the course that engages with the student to review past material in order to complete the in-class activities. It helps to solidify learning and also hear interesting ideas from other students. It is incredible that this course is packed with content yet it never felt that we were rushing through the materials. The assignments were well spaced apart and the talkshows (interview like verbal assessment), which takes place during regular seminar hours, were perfectly placed near the end of the semester to give students breathing room for final assessments from both this and other courses.
At first, some ancient readings from Aristotle and the Stoics were quiet difficult to grasp, but the seminar discussions and periodic reviews which gradually helped to clarify everything.
Manageability of Workload:
Reasonable workload
Weekly reading can take from 1-2hrs. I am a slow reader so most should be taking less time.
Essay assignments and other assignments can take from 1-2 entire days each. However this is highly dependent on the individual.
Ease/Difficulty of Attaining Grades:
It is difficult to obtain an A. You have to consistently exercise good reasoning in your essays and other graded assignments, which is not easy to meet the highest tier of the grading criteria.
With a reasonable amount of high quality thought put in your work, it is achievable to obtain A-.
I think almost everyone can obtain B+ as long as you put some effort in the course, some errors in the assignments are tolerated.
Learning Value/Recommendation:
Useful. I think everyone should at least dapple in philosophy to enrich themselves.
About the Instructor:
I think Prof David did an excellent job despite the tough crowd. Key concepts are read and discussed from the ground up. Whenever new concepts are introduced into the discussion, Prof David always asks the student to clarify and explain, which was always appreciated. I really liked the freedom when it comes to the essay assignments (both deadline wise and topic wise). Another thing I really enjoyed was that I was free to explore some philosophical ideas outside of the course and draw connections.
Additional Comments/Word of Advice:
This is a philosophy course (for some reason, some student thought otherwise). But it is made approachable, so fear not
AY 25/26, Sem 1
Content (Structure/Organization):
The first half looks at ancient philosophies about happiness and/or science, and the second half focuses on modern philosophies and issues like social media. The course is structured such that you can compare how these philosophies and their relevance have changed, in addition to understanding what these philosophies are about on their own. Expect studying Aristotle, stoicism and epicureanism, and reading ancient texts, although Prof David has selected shorter snippets in view of the difficulty reading ancient texts. I think this course is manageable, even if ancient Greek philosophy is not something you're familiar with.
Manageability of Workload:
Readings are mostly short and manageable, although you would be encouraged to read further to get a better understanding. It's ancient Greek philosophy, so the more you read, and the longer you can spend time on it, it will pay off. Assignments are structured quite flexibly too: (3x 1.2K essays, or 1.2K + 2.4K essays, max five 1.2K essays graded best of three); two viva voce to review your essays (Prof calls it a talk show); one short class presentation (10 minutes); and class participation. Also, creative option is available to replace the third 1.2K essay.
Ease/Difficulty of Attaining Grades:
You could spend time on further reading to refine your own thought, although this isn't necessary. Assignments are designed to help you score well.
Learning Value/Recommendation:
The course is helpful if you want to do some comparative and analytical philosophy, although you don't have to do it throughout your assignments. Prof David recognises that not everyone is able to write about philosophy as rigorously as required in academic papers.
About the Instructor:
Prof David is great at facilitating class discussions. Lessons are quite structured in that they unpack a reading in various ways, with a fair balance of group discussions and individual work. The assignments also give you quite some autonomy.
AY 25/26, Sem 1
Content (Structure/Organization):
First half focuses heavily in ancient philosophers and what they think about happiness. Second half is on contemporary philosophers/writers on happiness. This is a pretty philosophical course and the nature part comes in with how it can relate to happiness. With philosophy, everything can be hard to understand, more so with the ancient philosophers than the modern ones.
Manageability of Workload:
Can be pretty heavy. The readings, though not particularly long, can be tough and time consuming. Throughout the semester, you will write minimum 3 and maximum 5 essays of about 1200 words each. The best 3 will be calculated in your final grade. So if you're lazy you can just do 3 essays. Alternatively, you can do a creative project instead of an essay. There is a lot of conditions and variations regarding the essays and what you can do in instead of it ( i cant remember them all). On top of that, you do a ~15min class presentation with QnA on a nature experience while applying concepts from the philosophers. Then there is the x2 breakfast show, which is essentially a one-on-one QnA with Prof regarding your first two essays.
In total:
- Class participation (he doesnt mark this strictly)
- 3-5 essays/creative project
- 2 breakfast talk shows
- 1 presentation (done is pairs)
Overall, workload is heavy in terms of content taught and the deliverables.
Ease/Difficulty of Attaining Grades:
I didn't put much additional effort into this course and in my opinion my essays were pretty mid or bad. Yet I will likely get a B+ for this mod, which is probably higher than what I deserve. I think the grading is more liberal, at least on the left side of the bell curve.
Learning Value/Recommendation:
Unless you are whipping out Aristotle or Lucretius in your daily conversations, or thinking deeply about what makes you happy (which people nowadays dont have much time to think about), you will probably not find this course useful. However, I believe that the soft skills nurtured, such as understanding and evaluating arguments, philosophical or not, is still valuable.
About the Instructor:
Prof. David Merry is very passionate about philosophy and nature. Each lesson is clear in the concepts being taught and prof Merry provides a handout for each lesson with questions and activities that he would go through each class to help us understand what is going on. He also incorporates a lot of mind maps and drawings. Mind maps are a staple in his lessons as he wants us to be able to map out the arguments made by the philosophers and evaluate the soundness of their arguments. Overall, Prof. Merry does a good job in teaching those concepts.
Additional Comments/Word of Advice:
You will very confused most of the time. Don't take unless you love philosophy.