Spring 2027

Introduction to Philosophy

Introduction to Philosophy covers various philosophical questions and the strategies philosophers use to address them.

offering recorded3–4 credits

Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 Annina Loets3.8/5 Alexander Roberts3.8/5

Summary

1 / 6

Past student reviews · Alexander Roberts

Grading focused on only a few assignments, such as in-class essays and section participation, while students also received credit for showing up.

What you’ll be able to do

Describe some of the key questions within philosophy.
Explain some of the key positions that philosophers have defended.
Appraise philosophical arguments with clarity and charity.

Source: UW Guide

Grade history

↗

average GPA
letter grades

All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Professors

Spring 2027

Annina Loets

Adjusted rating

RMP difficulty

captured reviews

About this rating

Raw average: 4.08/5 from 13 quality ratings. The adjusted rating blends this with the UW review average (3.66/5), weighted as 20 additional ratings. Smaller samples stay closer to that average. Each captured review is counted once in the prior; this does not correct who chooses to leave a review.

RMP profile ↗ · All captured review dates; profile matched by name.

Recent recorded grades — Fall 2024: 3.77 GPA, 88.9% A/AB (n=63 letter grades); Spring 2025: 3.52 GPA, 79.2% A/AB (n=48 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.63 GPA, 87.1% A/AB (n=62 letter grades).

Alexander Roberts

Adjusted rating

RMP difficulty

captured reviews

About this rating

Raw average: 4.00/5 from 9 quality ratings. The adjusted rating blends this with the UW review average (3.66/5), weighted as 20 additional ratings. Smaller samples stay closer to that average. Each captured review is counted once in the prior; this does not correct who chooses to leave a review.

For this course: 4.0/5 raw quality · 2.3/5 difficulty · 7 reviews

RMP profile ↗ · All captured review dates; profile matched by name.

Past student reviews · Alexander Roberts

Alexander Roberts graded students heavily on three writing assignments and a final exam, while adjusting grades upward for participation. He banned technology in class and provided handouts for absences, though some found lectures dry while others described them as engaging. Students noted he was accessible via email and eager to hear their thoughts.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2024: 3.61 GPA, 81.2% A/AB (n=80 letter grades); Fall 2024: 3.69 GPA, 89.6% A/AB (n=67 letter grades); Spring 2025: 3.67 GPA, 82.0% A/AB (n=61 letter grades).

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

Past student reviews · Juan Comesana, Alan Sidelle

Historical students described Alan Sidelle’s lectures as interesting and fairly easy, noting that he reiterated key points despite some rambling. Conversely, Juan Comesana’s lectures were criticized as inarticulate, making note-taking difficult. These reviews reflect past student experiences with specific historical instructors.

ALAN SIDELLE is recorded teaching in Fall 2006, Spring 2007, Fall 2007, Spring 2008, Fall 2008, Spring 2009, Fall 2009, Spring 2010, Fall 2010, Spring 2011, Fall 2012, Spring 2013, Fall 2013, Spring 2014, Spring 2015, Spring 2019, Fall 2020, Spring 2022, Fall 2022. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

ALEXANDER ROBERTS is recorded teaching in Spring 2024, Fall 2024, Spring 2025. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

ANNINA LOETS is recorded teaching in Spring 2024, Fall 2024, Spring 2025, Fall 2025. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

ARUN BAXTER is recorded teaching in Fall 2023, Spring 2024. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

CASEY RUFENER is recorded teaching in Fall 2022, Fall 2023, Fall 2024, Spring 2025. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

DANIELLE CLEVENGER is recorded teaching in Fall 2022, Spring 2026. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

ELIZABETH BELL is recorded teaching in Fall 2021. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

GREGORY NIRSHBERG is recorded teaching in Fall 2018, Spring 2020, Fall 2020, Spring 2023. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

JAMES MESSINA is recorded teaching in Spring 2013, Spring 2016, Fall 2016, Spring 2018, Fall 2018, Spring 2019, Fall 2019, Fall 2021, Fall 2022, Fall 2024, Spring 2025. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

JOHN BENGSON is recorded teaching in Fall 2011, Spring 2012, Spring 2013, Fall 2013, Fall 2017, Spring 2018, Fall 2018, Spring 2019, Spring 2020, Fall 2020. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

JUAN M COMESANA is recorded teaching in Fall 2006, Spring 2007, Fall 2007, Spring 2008, Fall 2008, Spring 2009. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

KATHERINE DEAVEN is recorded teaching in Fall 2020. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

MICHAEL BRUCKNER is recorded teaching in Fall 2021, Fall 2023, Spring 2024. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

PAUL KELLY is recorded teaching in Fall 2021, Fall 2022. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Calendar & sections

Spring 2027

Schedule loads here as you scroll.

Section	Mode	Enrolled / capacity
LEC 001	Classroom Instruction	0 / 69
DIS 313	Classroom Instruction	0 / 23
DIS 312	Classroom Instruction	0 / 23
DIS 321	Classroom Instruction	0 / 23
DIS 322	Classroom Instruction	0 / 23
DIS 323	Classroom Instruction	0 / 23
LEC 002	Classroom Instruction	0 / 69
DIS 311	Classroom Instruction	0 / 23
LEC 004	Classroom Instruction	0 / 69
DIS 341	Classroom Instruction	0 / 23
DIS 342	Classroom Instruction	0 / 23
DIS 343	Classroom Instruction	0 / 23
LEC 005	Classroom Instruction	0 / 69
DIS 351	Classroom Instruction	0 / 23
DIS 352	Classroom Instruction	0 / 23
DIS 353	Classroom Instruction	0 / 23

Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections. Enrollment reflects scan time.

Meeting source records

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Student experience

the class

Past student reviews · Alexander Roberts

Professor Roberts taught an accessible philosophy course where he made a point to learn every student's name and encouraged engagement with the material.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 3.57 GPA, 78.9% A/AB (n=350 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.68 GPA, 84.6% A/AB (n=377 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.59 GPA, 79.1% A/AB (n=249 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Alexander Roberts

Grading focused on only a few assignments, such as in-class essays and section participation, while students also received credit for showing up.

Past student reviews · Alexander Roberts

Students noted that phones were banned and lectures could be tuned out, but missed handouts were emailed upon request.

Topics

Various philosophical questions
Strategies used by philosophers

Skills

Strategies for addressing philosophical questions
Describing key philosophical questions
Explaining key philosophical positions
Appraising philosophical arguments with clarity and charity

Grades

Spring 2027 · Projected

Before grades are released

– average GPA

Approximate 80% prediction interval

About this estimate

The course’s semester-average GPA, not an individual student’s grade. The center uses 5 same-season terms, weighted toward recent results.

The range uses the finite-sample 80th-percentile rank of absolute errors from earlier same-season forecasts. Each forecast uses only records from earlier terms. At least four forecasts are required; bounds are rounded outward and limited to 0–4. This is an empirical estimate: changing instructors or grading policies can reduce its coverage.

8 earlier forecasts · 0.14 GPA average error.

Grades over time

Through Spring 2027

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Spring 2026 · all course levels

GPA

Higher than % of other courses in this group.

Course GPAs · red marks this course’s range

letter grades

More recorded grades than % of other courses in this group.

Typical course in this group: letter grades.

About this comparison

1280 courses over the same term, each with at least 30 recorded letter grades. Cross-listed courses count once. GPA is not a measure of difficulty or teaching quality. The typical course is the median by recorded grade count; tied values are not counted as lower. Grade counts describe course scale, not unique students or typical section size.

Descriptions compare GPA with this group’s average: at least 0.20 higher or lower; otherwise close to average. Section size uses median recorded enrollment: small up to 30, mid-sized 31–99, large 100+. Lectures and discussion/lab sections are described separately.

Sources & history

UW–Madison

Catalog & offerings

Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.

Catalog observation history

Observations at scan time; dates do not imply when a catalog change took effect.

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Selected offering source records

PHILOS 101 · Spring 2027

Introduction to Philosophy

Recorded 2026-10-14

Raw records

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    "offering_id": "1274:736:014674",
    "course_id": "PHILOS 101",
    "course_uid": "course_432c74beba85cb7bdc1287f7",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "014674",
    "source_subject_id": "736",
    "title": "Introduction to Philosophy",
    "credits_min": 3,
    "credits_max": 4,
    "typically_offered": "Fall, Spring, Summer"
  }
]

Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

Read original reviews

Download part 1

Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

Explore recorded grades

Model outputs & technical records

Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B

LLM outputs across runs

Download part 1

Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

Download part 1

Model & dataset provenance

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  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
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  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}

Introduction to Philosophy

Summary

What you’ll be able to do

Grade history

Prerequisites

Professors

Annina Loets

Alexander Roberts

Calendar & sections

Student experience

the class

difficulty & workload

Topics

Skills

Grades

Spring 2027 · Projected

Grades over time

Where this course fits relative to UW–Madison

Sources & history

Catalog & offerings

Student reviews

Grade history

Where this course fits relative to