Spring 2027

History of Modern Philosophy

History of Modern Philosophy covers various philosophers from the 17th century through the early 20th century.

offering recorded3–4 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 James Messina4.5/5

Summary

1 / 3

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 3.21 GPA, 57.1% A/AB (n=35 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.69 GPA, 88.9% A/AB (n=63 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.30 GPA, 73.2% A/AB (n=41 letter grades).

What you’ll be able to do

  • Review and interpret key philosophical works from the Modern period.

  • Describe some of the key arguments made by Modern philosophers and critically evaluate them.

Source: UW Guide

Grade history

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average GPA
letter grades
A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

Junior standing or 3 Credits in PHILOS

    • Junior standing
    • 3 Credits in PHILOS
    take one
PHILOS 432

This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree
  • Any of
    • Junior standing
    • 3 Credits in PHILOS

Professors

Spring 2027

James Messina

Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 4.90/5 from 41 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 — Spring 2023: 3.43 GPA, 68.6% A/AB (n=51 letter grades); Fall 2023: 3.50 GPA, 75.0% A/AB (n=68 letter grades); Spring 2024: 3.67 GPA, 87.0% A/AB (n=54 letter grades).

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

JAMES MESSINA is recorded teaching in Fall 2012, Fall 2013, Spring 2014, Fall 2014, Spring 2016, Spring 2017, Spring 2018, Fall 2018, Spring 2020, Spring 2022, Spring 2023, Fall 2023, Spring 2024. 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.

SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist
LEC 001Classroom Instruction0 / 690
DIS 302Classroom Instruction0 / 230
DIS 303Classroom Instruction0 / 230
DIS 301Classroom Instruction0 / 230

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

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 3.21 GPA, 57.1% A/AB (n=35 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.69 GPA, 88.9% A/AB (n=63 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.30 GPA, 73.2% A/AB (n=41 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

No workload feedback recorded.

Topics

  • Philosophers from the 17th century through the early 20th century
  • Key philosophical works from the Modern period

Skills

  • Reviewing and interpreting key philosophical works
  • Describing and critically evaluating key arguments by Modern philosophers

Grades

Historical instructor

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 · 0.22 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.

Download part 1
Selected offering source records
PHILOS 432 · Spring 2027

History of Modern Philosophy

Recorded 2026-10-14
Raw records 
[
  {
    "run_id": "20261014T203208-0851c9a1",
    "semester": "1274",
    "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1274:736:014699",
    "course_id": "PHILOS 432",
    "course_uid": "course_ea9add99509b4fc2854bb031",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "014699",
    "source_subject_id": "736",
    "title": "History of Modern Philosophy",
    "credits_min": 3,
    "credits_max": 4,
    "typically_offered": "Fall, Spring"
  }
]
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Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

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Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

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Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-10-14

View the dataset on Hugging Face
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 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "9a81567c54f62217257ace3ae5a4aa5c88df201433b92657c6fbc6bd388c3403",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}