3.4
Quality3.3
Difficulty63%
Would Retake127
Reviews63%
Would Retake
127
Reviews
Rating DistributionOfficial
5
46
4
26
3
18
2
23
1
14
What Students Say
“The class itself has so much potential, but lectures did not really have a structure and the prof could not give a strong enough account of each individual paper to do them justice”
PHIL333 - 1.0 rating“The readings are horrible, long and boring”
PHIL321 - 1.0 ratingClass Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
63%
Textbook Required
43%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
B+
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Stable
+0.11 avg changeRatings by Course
PHIL320421
5.0
(1)PHIL421
5.0
(1)PHIL110
5.0
(1)PHIL333PHIL42O
5.0
(1)PHIL329
5.0
(3)Difficulty by Course
PHIL363
5.0
PHIL320421
5.0
PHIL4XX
5.0
120
4.0
PHIL3300
4.0
Reviews (127)
ohh goodness..~.~ if you have sleeping problems, go to this class..!!
very interesting prof...i look forward to taking another class w/ him
Really interesting course, started me off on a philosophy minor
Easy and interesting
Tough to pay attention to.
ok lectures, good notes, learning a lot and loving philosophy!
extremely interesting course, and i enjoyed every minute of it!!
I was tired in the afternoon course wish it was teh morning
No Comments
Can't answer student questions, unclear, BORING, BORING, BORING.
Easy to Understand, comprehensive notes
an informative and interesting course. Sam's got a great teaching skills and passion for philosophy.
BORING! BORING! BORING! DOES HE KNOW HOW TO USE AN OVERHEAD TO WRITE SOME NOTES DOWN?
TOUGH curving system: out of 100 stuents, only 10 As, 10-15 Bs, and the rest are all Cs.
Hard marker! And went ON AND ON about how GREAT the two 'A' students were. Overall, smart guy and pretty good lectures. Very demanding.
Awesome course....helpful notes...teaching was very effective. Great attitude in and out of the class. Enjoyed the lectures even thought i often fell asleep in them, but the lecture tapes were very helpful.....prepared me real good for the exam.
he is unclear and a tough marker...he has bad notes on the net and uses wiered books, and to top it all off he is BORING
BRUTAL!! Hard class and horribly boring. Almost impossible to get a good mark, especially since the content was so dull!!
funny guy,, knows his stuff, and enjoys it
He is living his life IRONICAlly
He is a great professor.Funny and easy going.But maybe phil100 isn't his course.His style is wearing shorts..and his notes maybe kind of confusing sometimes.But he made me want to do a philsophy degree.His office has the best view.
He made me felt that my life was meaningless.
Sweet man, very cute. *purr*
Only a half-brain would claim that a philosophy course like 120 is dull.
Sam is a great teacher. He is intelligent, kind, helpful, and interesting. He has an excellent grasp of the material, and you will learn a lot. Thant being said, he does expect hard work: do your readings (at least once), come to class prepared to learn and you will do fine. He is a bit of a tough marker--no easy marks in philosophy.
good solid prof, very intelligent - has his own theoretical biases- but so does the whole dept. has a reputation for being a very hard marker. Packs a lot of reading into courses - and they're not really anything you can skim. I've a pretty solid comprehension level, and Im reading a lot of it twice
Sam is awsome. Aside from being an exceptional prof, he's just a really great person. Really down to earth and friendly.
No Comments
His lectures and notes were full of errors (downright contradictions of the texts, and obvious misinterpretations).
Good prof for a first year class. Definetly very clear and made complex philosophy seem very easy. I personally think he over simplified stuff a bit too much but for a first year philosophy course it was appropriate.
The Final Exam was pretty easy, lectures get a little boring at times, but he's overall a pretty good prof.
dogmatic & blind to his assumptions, 'confesses ignorance' of the writings of philsophers "he just rejects" too much, dismisses them as they're trope or cachet, which comes off arrogant and plastic. paper comments reveal that he just skims assignments, selectively interprets readings. Really nice guy though. He'd make an awesome Business prof,
If you end up in this slot it's not very demanding. Lectures appear uninspired and not engaging; so much for a 120 course.
He is a nice and cleaver man. I liked his class a lot!!
No Comments
Don't expect to get an A since only 7% of the class is allowed to get it. As long as you attend every lecture, you should do well in the final. Kind of boring class. Weekly reflections can get kind of annoying since the material is boring and therefore there's not much to reflect upon.
Pretty good class, prof. If you're not big into philosophy, it can get kinda boring. He's good at trying to make lectures interesting, and he tries to make sure everyone understands the material. Overall, I'd reccomend this class to anyone seeking an intro phil course. Beware though, it's writing intensive...but the finals fairly easy.
u either kno it or u dun't. i didn't really get it, but enough to pass! he makes some errors in the lecture notes. u hand in 10 weekly reflections & 3 papers (writing intensive) [i recommend not doing it last minute ><] . Final i guess was fairly easy .. but hey, phil is not for me!
He tries to be funny, but with little to no avail. His lecture notes are ALWAYS hard to follow and incorrect. He pretty much reads off his notes. If he doesn't he skips what we feel is important. I learned way more in my tutorials because they are clear in tutorials.
He's nice.He's friendly.find the information okay to digest...but he assumes that you know the stuff which is pretty daunting if it's your first year.it's only my 5th week .
No Comments
Just finished the exam 4 hours ago. It was sooo easy. I had only gone to the first three weeks of classes and just study his course review and some of my own notes (with definitions and MAIN IDEAS of the 8 or 9 philosophers). Lectures were super boring, but it is alright, exam is easy :)
Ok. Final exam was easy-if it was compared to those essays. For the essay topics, you have to read for abt 10 times before you understood what the question was. Also, TA wasn't great at helping us improve our essays. Lectures were BORING and TA didn't know how to teach. Had to figure everything out myself. Textbook makes things harder.
Sam Black was hard to understand. The reading material was long and hard to digest. So, writing the 3 papers were hell. My TA didn't help that much, but did try to make things a bit clearer. I think that the TA will make a difference in this course. The final was fairly okay though, considering that I didn't finish any of my readings.
Gave me a final grade before he read my final paper! Oh and he LOST my final paper, thank god I still had it on my computer. Not very helpful. Had him for 120 and I dont remember him being that uncooperative.
A dry teacher where it is hard to even stay awake in class. The entire class consists of writing 3 essays and attending tutorials. Be prepared for hard marking on the essays.
He is an amazing prof. despite this is a writing intensive course he makes it not so bad. He def. knows what he is talking about and his lectures are super helpful is explaining the readings. If you are lazy good luck, this is a class you don't want to slack in:p
Moral philosophy is a waste of time. This course is good if you like to hone your skills at arguing endlessly and aimlessly. Black, although seemingly passionate, is a bland prof whom if you're doing worse than a B+, is completely unhelpful. Both TA and prof were completely useless at helping me grasp the material. Stay far far away.
He had an almost monotone voice, and i could just understand of pay attention to anything he said.
The course content was okay, but lectures were so boring! He has a droning voice that tends to put people to sleep. If you plan to attend lecture, be sure to have something to record it so you can refer back to it later on. If you're a business student looking to get the writing requirement, DON'T take this class - it's a waste of your time.
He sincerely tried to help students understand. He gave nice examples to help remember concepts, like "whether a 'sympathizer' would help someone who was hanging from a tree with his limbs cut off, and had boiling hot water poured on him by relieving his pain and killing him." -Sam Black. If you didn't like Phil120, blame the subject, not the prof.
I like the prof, he is very approachable. He does try to clarify things for the students. I enjoyed course content, but it seems a bit hard to get a high mark in this course. Especially the essays--the TA's expectations are slightly diff so you better go see him/her to find out. also, your arguments better be convincing if you want to get those mar
Lectures were pretty much useless. Tutorials are on the useless side as well (guess it depends on your ta). The course consists of 3 papers and 1 final. The essays are super hard... first 2 are worth 20%, last essay worth 30% (same as the final). Final was easy compared to essays, just study the lecture notes and you should be fine.
He's pretty nice and tries to accommodate students' needs for learning. Interesting course.
Very nice teacher, never would turn a student's question down no matter how stupid, will go over concepts until everyone understands. This class is especially interesting if you speak up, he praises people who participate greatly.
obviously he tried hard to make the course interesting. was it? no. i was on msn during class all the time and attended ..really for no reason. but i still did super well, i guess because i'm good at writing essays and memorizing dumb things.
I absolutely hated this class but Sam is really good. He managed to make the topics i found really boring sumwhat half-interesting, which is quite the feat. If you like Philosophy, you will love Sam Black.
I loved Dr. Black, it was very easy to follow his lectures, and was lots of fun
he spends the lectures mostly talking about what he doesn't understand from the book, instead of helping us understand. half the class stopped going to his lectures because they were completely unhelpful plus the course was so intensive. do not take his course!!!!
1) soc & poli philosophy 2) 421ST-Metaethics: papers asked us 2advance our positions on the course themes referrng 2 maj issus andor readngs fr class.made arg mostly fr continental/poststruct phenomenolgcl & german idealst vein. he dogmtcly rjctdt whle movments. comnts raisd objctns alrdy answrd. smug jerk if ur position is against his academc bias
if ur keen& agree with his positions or criticisms of the readings & if ur totaly on board with his analysis of txts ull do well. but even if ur straitA phil stdnt &take a countrary positn 2 his hell eithr b patronizing if ur critcsm stll subordints 2 him, or hostle & dogmtic &clrly biasd if ur objections = +++ substantial. CONTEST BOGUS PAPR MRKS!
never has time for office hours. cant explain things clearly. you have to seek other help to pass this course.
He is nice.. very boring material though. Hated it. Useless, and pointless. Your paper mark depends on your TA, I got my final paper reviewed and it went up by 3 letter grades.
"I don't buy it," is his frequent yet facile quip to pretty much all continental thought, and anything contra Anglo-American moral-semanticizers who (naively) base their arguments on assumptions about the a priori "self-first" motto of human beings. All morality is a quid quo pro, eh, Sam? Case closed?
Lectures show some main points well, but arguing how persuasive they are just makes me toss the paper and book into the air like whatever, as it could go like whatever. No meaningful feedback from TA for a direction to write a sensical paper, and already the fragmented ideas are hard enough to put together. Just confusing each other back and forth.
Lectures were normal, teacher fine. This was supposed to be a writing course and the expectations were very high but indications were almost nonexistent. No book about how to write a philosophy paper, unusual for 100 level writing courses, and tutorials were useless. Overall a mediocre course,in terms of teaching methods and organization.
Sam is a very intelligent and highly competent professor. His classes are some of the toughest in the philosophy department and you definitely learn a lot from him. He often assigns new readings as the semester progresses, so it's hard to tell how difficult his classes will be from the first few weeks. Be prepared to read lots of dense articles.
This prof is really really boring! His class is pointless to attend! The best part is the framing question but after that it goes downhill. One of the hardest first year class as some of the material is difficult. He seems like a really nice guy outside of class though.
Very patient and helpful. He really cares about his students, and also very passionate about the subject. Sometimes he talks a lot about his attitude/understanding towards the material, which is very helpful cuz it makes the reading a lot earier to understand from a different perspective. The course itself is hard tho. Super abstract/dense readings
Sam has taught me many times and overall he's great. Exams are really tough...if you don't study HARD, you won't do well. On the bright-side, he's more lenient than most when marking papers and gives lots of good feedback. He loves talking to students about subject matter so go see him in office hours! Super passionate about what he does.
lecture is pointless. Do the assigned reading, write the essay, go to final, you will do fine. Boring prof.
Interesting topics, but a hard course. There were A LOT of (difficult) readings. He seems like a nice guy, and he can be funny, but I swear I fell asleep in almost every lecture (and the class was only 50 min long!). Don't really need to go to lecture, just do the readings and your papers and you're fine. Not a first year class though...
Awful Professor who plays favourites. Takes an entire semester to hand back all your work, makes the same criticizes and informs you that you failed to build off your previous work. Extremely uncharitable to the reading list. Teaching style makes everything he says unclear. Pretentious.
The class itself has so much potential, but lectures did not really have a structure and the prof could not give a strong enough account of each individual paper to do them justice. Instead it was a huge amount of readings like a sprawled out dinner-rush buffet except you don't really feel satisfied at the end.
A little TOO on top of marking. Since he asks for a boat load of written assignments it's amazing that he could possibly give a charitable or careful reading of student work. YMMV your marks may vary. Like someone else said, ridiculous amount of readings. Thankfully he provides some notes. Pretty uncharitable to authors, takes extreme readings.
Very confusing prof, with no structure to the lectures. Be aware.
One of the most unorganized, confusing, and boring professor ever. His syllabus modifies all the time, as he counts it as "provisional". The readings are horrible, long and boring. There are no structures in his lectures. He's everywhere, and his voice is kind of boring. It's really painful to stay in lecture, but he takes attendance for your 10%.
Sam is a fantastic lecturer! He really communicates clearly and makes sure the class understands the main concepts. The content of the course is very interesting, although readings are hard to plow through. Just go to lectures, listen, and study from the slides. The course, especially papers, requires a lot of thinking, but not unreasonable.
Sam made the lectures pretty interesting and did his best to apply examples that would engage the class. The final for this class was pretty tricky but if you study lots you'll be fine. I think he did a great job of teaching the material and I would definitely take another course with him
Didn't show up to a single lecture, so I didn't even recognize him at the final exam. However, seems sweet and intelligent. I assume it was an enjoyable class.
Professor Black is been my favourite Prof, he loves his work, and is very proud to teach his students about a topic that is a huge part of his life. To receive a good mark in the class you needn't show up to lecture but the first couple topics originally draw you to lecture but you will continue coming after that because his lectures are amazing.
Sam is really willing to invest in you and help you out if he sees that you are willing to put effort in to doing well. Probably one of the nicest profs at SFU. I took a course with him that I thought I had little interest in and he helped me find a focus that tailored my interests. Show him you care and he will guide you to get a better mark!
Sam Black is a very good professor and explains course material well. Philosophy is a topic where you must be open to changing the way you think about issues. Being able to look at a topic objectively from both sides is extremely important if you want to do well in this class. Participate in tutorials! If you don't understand, find out how to!
Sam is an amazing prof and I would love to take more of his courses. I initially took this class for the writing credit but the topics were so engaging and they really change the way you look at current issues. Sam is good at giving examples to make the concepts clear and the essays are graded fairly.
Really boring class. He also doesn't accurately present author's views. In one case he claimed the paper was arguing for legal restrictions, when she clearly states it is a moral argument and doesn't in any way imply anything about the law.
I've taken two classes with him so far (unfortunately, because the PHIL department is lacking profs) and I can say I'm not his biggest fan. He provides lecture notes, but they're lengthy Word/PPT documents that are unclear. Rambles on about theory, while not applying it to anything. Assignments and grading are poorly explained and pointless.
he was really good at teaching, had to pay attention but made it fun
Posts all lecture notes. Doesn't use visuals during lecture, but tries to change it up to be interesting. Passionate and good at explaining things he's prepared, but doesn't answer student questions well. Uses lot's of examples. Always available and willing to help. Nice guy, generous grader.
The material is interesting and the examples that he makes are relevant. Grading criteria for written assignments are clear. However, the lectures were kinda boring, as he just changes his voice to read all the info from slides. Didn't outline what we will be tested on the final exam, had to memorize all slides. Exam is hard and tricky, prepare!!!
I'm not gonna lie, the class was not THE most attention grabbing- but Sam still managed to make class worth showing up for. You can tell he's passionate about the subject, and doesn't use that as an excuse to give mediocre lectures. He tried to be a bit more lenient with grading this time around due to the current world situation-very appreciated!
Philosophy is subjective and strict; Harvard College's "A Brief Guide to Writing the Philosophy Paper" should become your bible if you want top grades in an essay-based course. You have to argue within the confines of the author's argument, the less novel-thought the better. This course (326) nailed the coffin shut on philosophy for me - horrid.
One of my favourite profs in the Phil department. Sam inspired me to go to law school, and has always given me great feedback and advice even when I wasn't a student of his. I'm so grateful to have taken several classes with him. His lectures are interesting and he truly cares for his students. can't recommend enough
Really nice guy, clearly cares a lot about his students. As a 300 lvl phil course, it is expected to be discussion based. found he allowed for certain students to monopolize classroom conversation and it quickly became a hostile environment for anyone wanting to contribute. otherwise was a fair marker.
really boring prof. hated going to the lecture even when you dont have to. tutorial is must and there's weekly reflections. THIS CLASS DEPENDS ON YOUR TA. Ik some people who got more marks than me in essays because of the TA.
Sam keeps you engaged, however if you aren't interested you will find his lecture boring. THIS IS NOT A GPA BOOSTER. write your reflections, and your papers and you will be fine. Tutorials are mandatory, lecture isn't. Final exam is very similar to his study guide, so follow that, and just know the beliefs of each philosopher and you will be fine
Sam is a great prof, tries his best to make le tyres interesting and engaging. However he does send documents each week to read and write a reflection on (between 4-40 pages) which is also easy if you can time manage those and your other assignments. He works well to make it clear what he wants on the papers and only has one cumulative final test
Very sweet guy and genuinely great at explaining the topics, however it could get boring at times. Your whole grade depends on your TA tbh since there are 3 papers to do. The final was absolutely crazy hard so do your best people.
He's excited to introduce students to the material and lectures reflect that. Unfortunately pretty disorganized and changes the syllabus and readings every week. Need to keep on top of the latest versions of all documents because they are considered provisional and will change without notice! Mandatory attendance by way of passworded quizzes.
This professor is amazing!! He is very kind, takes his time to answer questions and is very enthusiastic. Take his class if you want good education.
His lectures are AWFUL, so so hard to follow. Explains concepts using examples and just rambles, never actually gets to the point. Tutorials weren't helpful. Final is 30 question M/C but it's cumulative, confusing, and worth 30% of your grade. Attendance in lecture mandatory and part of your grade.
Great Prof but a ton of reading and lecture material. Clearly enjoys teaching. Mandatory in class quizzes for submission marks.
Lecture attendance was mandatory but he's a sweet guy who clearly cares about his students and what he teaches.
TAKE THIS CLASS. Sam cares so much about his students, everything is super clear in the syllabus and if he makes any changes he will always make an announcement. He is so approachable and so nice, he goes above and beyond to make sure everyone in the class does well and is comfortable in lectures for difficult topics, and the work is NOT HARD.
Professor Sam Black is very passionate about the topics we discussed. His lecture slides were confusing as they range from 70-170 slides for a two hour lecture. The slides were overall confusing. No midterm. The final is 30% of our grade, 1 hour long with 30 mc questions, which i dont think suits the structure of our class or content amount.
Sam is one of the best professors ive had because of how kind and caring he is, if you ever need to take a PHIL course for ANY reason - required or not - i'd take one with him. He is clear, kind, respectful, approachable, funny, and engaging. The workload is perfect and won't stress you out. Plus, if you ever need help he will be right there. DO IT
He really cares about this course, he is really nice and understanding, and offers a lot of student support.
overall great prof! just his lectures could get boring. However he wants his students to do well in this course!
His lectures dragged on and there are 100+ slides per lecture which are confusing & horribly organized. He's very passionate about what he teaches, but the way he teaches is not for me. Attendance is required as he posts quizzes on Canvas that require a password that changes every class. If you want a GPA booster, this is def not the right class.
Embarrassing to see him push his beliefs so hard on students and sharing false information. He mentions that Elon Musk never donates any money, but he signed a pledge to donate 99% of his net worth long ago. Also claims that he is a white supremacist?! Calls Trump a fascist too. Only took this as a B-HUM is required. Thank god I'm not a PHIL major.
You have to write 3 papers in this course.The papers are often on very difficult to argue concepts.What is even worse is that these old papers you use as references are so confusingly written that even reading a sentence 5 times you do not understand what it means. I am saying this as a person born in Canada fluent in English! Torture/Waste of Time
Remember: You HAVE to be passionate about PHIL for this class. If not, this class is not for you. Lectures drag on a bit, I'm not a fan of how he formats his slides, & lots of reading to be done. We had 3 papers so get ready. Listen to your TAs for that. Despite that, he has so much personality, & is a cool guy, but his class is just not for me.
Sam's lectures are engaging (albeit, lengthy) and he's passionate about his work. The readings to which he refers in his slides use confusing language, but he does a great job of simplifying them. Don't take this class as a GPA booster; you should genuinely be interested in Philosophy. Papers can be tricky but TAs help a lot. Best prof so far.
I loved Sam Black's class, there was always something interesting in lecture and I was always engaged with the topics. If you're not as interested in the course material your experience would be much different than mine. I enjoyed in class discussions as they did help with understanding the papers we have read. Assignment topics are challenging
Best professor I had this semester. Lectures can get boring but if you really lock in they are quite fun. I enjoyed the topics we learned about and my TA was awesome. There are 3 papers and while I had some difficulty writing them, the rubric was clear to follow so it helped me a lot.
Hes amazing, make sure to check the reviews under "Samuel Black" becuase they are also about him, and are more accurate in my opinion. Take his classes!!
Go to class, go to TA's office hours for essay feedback before submitting. It's a GPA booster. the professor said it himself. His final exam is just MCQ with 30 questions, so do the readings! Overall really enjoyed this class!
The lecture notes in this class basically aim to slowly turn you into a far left liberal. I now understand why all of these people in society that have these beliefs have bs degrees like arts, communications ect. They are indoctrinated into believing this nonsense and marked according to it. Shame
He is funny and kind in a very genuine way.
Sam is a very good prof. There's around 1-2 hours of reading a week but they are not super hard. For essays, go to office hours because a lot of the time your arguments are not as strong as you think and the ta's will give you good feedback. One thing is that sam says he's open minded but he in fact very liberal and it will reflect in his lectures.
Sam Black is a nightmare of a professor. His lectures are unbearably boring, with confusing slides crammed with 70-170 pages of content for a two-hour session. Tutorials are mandatory, weekly reflections are tedious, and your grade depends entirely on your TA. The final exam is poorly structured and doesn't match the course content.
Full of contempt, dismissive and totally allergic to original ideas. Not only does he not have a clue about what he himself is talking, he does not have a clue about what you (as a student) are saying. Fails to understand most of the philosophical concepts; very limited philosophical insight.
He's a really good professor who cares about his students and a good lecturer , but you're grade will be mainly decided by your TA's since they are the ones who will mark your papers. The TA's for my classes were were good though
Professor Black has a unique teaching style that some find engaging, others a bit dry. The workload is manageable if you stay on top of the weekly reflections. For test prep, ChatGPT and unstuck AI were a big help.
Sam's a good dude. The course is challenging, and he's a tough marker, but he's not unfair. If you can think through the material and formulate coherent positions, you'll do fine. The material could be dry, but he makes up for it by encouraging lively discussion. I'd take a course with him again for sure.
Amazing lecturer and an interesting person. Would 100% recommend taking a class with him if you can find one.
Fantastic prof! Genuinely cares about your success and is willing to go out of his way to help. 10/10 can't say enough good things about Professor Black!
The prof? Good and caring. The course? Hmmm... Do not take it if you're not already experienced in philosophy. You NEED experience to know what you're doing and how to write papers. Only the intro courses (PH120, PH203) will explain paper structure. This course, like other higher ones, will not. Just expectations for grading.
Class Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
63%
Textbook Required
43%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
B+
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Stable
+0.11 avg changeRatings by Course
PHIL320421
5.0
(1)PHIL421
5.0
(1)PHIL110
5.0
(1)PHIL333PHIL42O
5.0
(1)PHIL329
5.0
(3)Difficulty by Course
PHIL363
5.0
PHIL320421
5.0
PHIL4XX
5.0
120
4.0
PHIL3300
4.0