Reviews of professor Eric MacPhail

Rating: 1.0/5, difficulty: 5.0/5
This class has around a hundred pages of heavy weekly philosophical reading, along with brutally difficult weekly quizzes, and two extremely long and critically graded essays. The syllabus has changed dramatically since the start of the course, but it is too late to withdraw from the class so I am stuck with an extremely difficult course...

Rating: 1.0/5, difficulty: 5.0/5
Very unprofessional and condescending in office hours and in emails. Absolutely irrational grading, and was unable to explain his own rationale for grading. I highly recommend staying away from Eric.

Rating: 1.0/5, difficulty: 5.0/5
This is a must take course for any philosophy majors out there. This class covers the writings of all the important philosophers and the daily quizzes and worksheets require you to scour through the readings, forcing you to understand the material or risk failing. Very difficult for an intro class, but learned a lot.

Rating: 1.0/5, difficulty: 5.0/5
Professor MacPhail is lenient and occasionally pushes back due dates, but the work required of us is still unrepresentative of an introductory class. There is more work required in this class than upper level STEM courses. The readings are difficult to understand but he summarizes the content after quizzing you. Bad for grades, Good for Philosophy

Rating: 2.0/5, difficulty: 5.0/5
His lectures can be dry because it is philosophy after all, but he does occasionally sprinkle in humor, making the lectures endurable. Would rate him a 1, but he definitely knows what he is talking about and just doesn't know how to teach a class. There are no clear grades in the class, but he does give a vague range that our grades may fall in.

Rating: 2.0/5, difficulty: 3.0/5
The class wasn't engaging because all he did was talk to us. He made us read articles and excerpts everyday for omewrok, which isn't a problem. However, in class all he did was talk about them. he didn't really teach us anything.  He is still young so hopefully he grows as a professor.

Rating: 1.0/5, difficulty: 4.0/5
He is, bar none, the worst professor I have ever had. I took 5 years of philosophy before (with more educated and better teachers), and as a STEM major I just took this class thinking it'd be easy credit and it's the furthest thing from it. Be prepared for 2x 500-1000 word essays every week and the harshest/most irrational grading imaginable. -/10

Rating: 5.0/5, difficulty: 2.0/5
If you're planning to major in philosophy, this class is a good choice. You have weekly writings (2 pages), and two big papers. You get to pick the topic for all the essays, so if you like being told what to write about, it might not be a great idea to pick this class. He provides all the textbooks and is helpful out of class (reply might be late)