Advice from Previous Students

Posted: Tue, Jan 20, 2026

It can be daunting to take your first philosophy class! Because there is often a steep learning curve, I want to help you adjust to thinking like a philosopher as smoothly as possible.

When I taught Intro to Philosophy last fall, I gave students an opportunity to leave an anonymous note to future students offering their advice. Below is a selection of what they wrote.

• “Keep curiosity and thirst for knowledge, don’t be afraid to express yourself, and treat this course as a part of your life rather than simply a course to fulfill the requirement of credit. In this way, you will find that this course can change your life.”
• “Talk more and write more after the reading. One of the biggest gains from this class is that I realized the logic in philosophy does share some similarities with mathematics in that it is a training process. Do not be afraid to make mistakes. Many times I felt confused or my view was challenged by Ding in class, but it only prompted me to think one more layer further. And trust me, it feels good when your idea becomes clearer on one specific topic. This intro class provides you with a platform to take the chance for yourself to get used to this critical thinking and discussion process.”
• “Try everything. Don’t get put off if you don’t necessarily agree with a certain take on a certain subject or facet of philosophy.”
• “Do the readings before class!!!!!!”
• “Philosophy can be really overwhelming! There is so much to think about, so many angles to consider. If you start to feel lost, try to approach the issue starting with what’s right in front of you, within the confines of the paper, and go from there.”
• “Make sure to try and apply what you read to your own life.”
• “Do the readings and make sure you understand it independently before class.”
• “As you’re taking notes on a reading, summarize the philosopher’s view and add in your own alongside it, maybe an indent under the bulletpoint. Any questions, dissents, or maybe even agreements you have with the text are useful to remember not just for the course, but just to evolve your individual philosophic perspective.”
• “If you can, try to print out all the readings! It helps a lot especially when reading somewhat dry philosophy to hold what you are reading in your hands and to be able to annotate with pen-to-paper. Philosophy is best when you are part of the conversation, and this method facilitates that feeling a lot more than just staring at a computer. Plus, there is research that shows you retain knowledge easier from reading things on paper versus reading things on a computer screen, which means less studying later on.”
• “[F]ocus on generating your own take on the source texts to make it more memorable, because this course is conceptually dense, so reading matters.”
• “Really take the time to do the readings, annotating them and actively engaging with them so that you can come to class prepared with things to say and questions to ask.”
• “Read the texts and try to invest time to understand them. It is very useful for conversations in class.”
• “I would tell students to revisit the readings after class, I found lecture was very helpful to me in forming an understanding of the readings and I liked going back to the text after lecture to apply this understanding.”
• “Don’t take this approach to Philosophy 101 for granted! Reading Rowan Bell and Audre Lorde is not as common as you may think.”