Spring 2027

Philosophy of Mind

Explores the nature of mind and its relation to physical states, emphasizing recent advances in philosophy and psychology.

offering recorded3 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 Edvard Aviles Meza

Summary

1 / 6

Past student reviews · Sarah Paul

One student noted the readings were fairly dense and hoped for clarification, while describing the 40-person course as functioning like an open discussion.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Describe some of the key philosophical questions related to philosophy of mind.

  • Explain the prominent arguments within philosophy of mind and critically evaluate these.

  • Engage in philosophical discussion with an eye for clarity, precision, understanding, and depth.

Source: UW Guide

Grade history

↗
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 551

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
Historical instructors & teaching patterns

FARID MASROUR is recorded teaching in Fall 2014, Fall 2017, Spring 2020, Spring 2023, Spring 2025, Fall 2025, Spring 2026. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

SARAH PAUL is recorded teaching in Fall 2010, Spring 2012, Spring 2015. 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 / 250

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 · Farid Masrour

Past students found the class enjoyable and approachable, with instructors like Farid Masrour facilitating in-class discussion and simplifying dense material.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 3.65 GPA, 83.3% A/AB (n=24 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.54 GPA, 71.4% A/AB (n=28 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.56 GPA, 85.7% A/AB (n=42 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Sarah Paul

One student noted the readings were fairly dense and hoped for clarification, while describing the 40-person course as functioning like an open discussion.

Past student reviews · Farid Masrour

Students appreciated that Farid Masrour encouraged in-class discussion and was kind and approachable, helping to clarify difficult readings.

Topics

  • Nature of mind and mental states
  • Relation between mental and physical states
  • Recent advances in philosophy and psychology

Skills

  • Describing key philosophical questions related to philosophy of mind
  • Explaining and critically evaluating prominent arguments in philosophy of mind
  • Engaging in philosophical discussion with clarity, precision, understanding, and depth

Grades

Latest available · Spring 2026— not enough history to project Spring 2027.

average GPA
A / AB grades
letter grades
Instructor

Grade distribution · % of letter grades

A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

Grades over time

Through Spring 2026

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 551 · Spring 2027

Philosophy of Mind

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": "1274:736:014743",
    "course_id": "PHILOS 551",
    "course_uid": "course_4da92585f9a43ecce6347d2b",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "014743",
    "source_subject_id": "736",
    "title": "Philosophy of Mind",
    "credits_min": 3,
    "credits_max": 3,
    "typically_offered": "Fall, Spring"
  }
]
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
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": "359dea9c8740ae271259cef870d491e0034fc638af9327b59fc6f74c6b0b600f",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}