Fernflores, Francisco  

Fernflores could not teach this class in a more clear way. It is super straight forward and he is really helpful when asking questions. He types the notes in class as he is teaching and then post the notes online. He also recorded his lectures meaning you could miss a class or two and just listen to his voice and read his notes. I personally thought he was a great teacher making a probably very boring subject quite interesting. I only got a B as i did shitty on his first test. I would recommend this guy.

His tests gave you curve balls sometimes that he didn't cover in class but overall this class is cake if you even mildly pay attention. I went into the second midterm having accidentally overdosed on benadryll, I had mad poison oak, so basically I was high as a kite and I still managed an A on it. Even if you skip a lot of class, read the text and his outlines online you'll still manage a C at worst I'd say.

Awful class. I was actually looking forward to this class since I thought that it would be a class where students can actually think about the outlook on life rather than just living through it. Wrong. All Fernflores does is talk for 2 hours (while rarely stopping to allow questions to be asked), then give you 4 in-class essays to write throughout the quarter(worth 25% each). And the way he grades, he'll give you an A only if you repeat the things he says, even on questions where it asks YOU to critically analyze one of the philosopher's analogy on something. You can't branch out your thought process whatsoever from what he says. This is just like any other math class where you have to memorize the material, then copy from your memory. The class is not insightful at all. Even if a prompt gives you a choice to question Socrates, Descartes, Hume, etc., do NOT do it, because chances are, he won't give a shit about what you think. Just agree with Fernflores' interpretation of those philosophers, put on some seasoning around your words, and you got yourself an A. I just didn't know about this until after the first midterm (hence my overall grade).

Okay I'm going to be very clear with my thought process with this professor throughout the quarter. I am a science major and generally learn things in black and white. This does not fit with philosophy. So, I found the lectures tedious and boring. On the first test, I knew the material and was accurate in my answers, but he nit-picked my wording and I got a 76. I was not pleased. So, on the second test, I really focused on learning the correct wording and writing in very complete sentences, and I got an 88. Third test I got a 99, and on the final I got a 91. On every test he pretty much gave us the questions before hand. They were either off of the reading study questions he gives you or he will email you what the questions will be about. Definitely take good notes during lecture and focus on being able to answer the study questions. Definitely not my favorite class, but Fernflores is a nice guy with good intentions. He won't screw you over. Thought I was going to get a C at the beginning of the quarter, ended up with a 89, and he gave me an A-. So, stick with it and you'll be rewarded.

This teacher is kind of Hypocritical in the fact that he encourages you to critically analyze the questions in his tests, but if you go off about how you DO NOT agree with one of the philosophers, no matter how valid the statement, he will give you a lower grade than if you would have agreed. That being said, he did convey the material in a clear matter....and as long as you agree with him on your essays you'll be fine. If you want an A, either get a tattoo of Descartes on your chest, or make sure you ask a lot of relevant questions, and go to office hrs.

Professor Francisco delivers the material clearly and distinctly. He writes notes in class as he talks about each point, and doesn't use boring power-point slides. Initially I was dreading signing up for this class because of how hard people say it is, although it can indeed get difficult, with the the guidance of Francisco it is an absolute breeze. He is very polite and helpful and holds office hours which I recommend you go if you have any question at all. Just don't expect him to give you the whole lecture again if you missed it. The class consists of 3 exams. Each exam is for a different philosopher, a Plato exam(1/3 of total grade), a Descartes exam(1/3 of total grade), and a Hume exam(1/3 of total grade). None of the exams are cumulative and are all multiple choice. They can get really tricky if you don't understand the material because all the answers sound exactly the same. With him writing all the notes needed to study for exams, you might be tempted to just slack and not pay attention, but I found that taking my own notes (based on what he says and not writes on the notes) helped me master the material. All the the notes he types in class he posts on PolyLearn. This is by far the best GE I have taken at Cal Poly so far and I HIGHLY recommend Francisco. NOTE: The class I took was a lecture with about 120 students thus the exams were multiple choice, however if you take it in summer or a section with less students, I heard there are writing assignments and short answer exams instead of multiple choice, so keep that in mind.

First of all, it was very hard for me to stay awake in this class. For some reason a two hour lecture with this guy was not possible for me. The material for this class doesn't seem hard and the way professor fernflores presents it is very easy to understand. He is a cool guy willing to help when you are stuck on certain topics. The midterms weren't extremely hard but they weren't very easy neither. In the large lecture class the test are multiple choice but he words the questions in a way that may confuse you.

Fernflores is boringgggg. The material seems manageable but then the test makes no sense. I would take him CREDIT/NO CREDIT ONLY! otherwise avoid!

Fernflores is an amazing professor and deserves more credit than he probably gets. You can tell that this guy really cares about his students, and yet, understands that not everyone is a philosophy major. I thought that I was going to take a philosophy GE and be confused all quarter because philosophical writings are just so complex. However, going to Fernflores' lecture really helped. He put everything into simple English that is easy to understand. Also, this guy moves at a slow enough pace so that you have time to write notes and ask questions. He types up his notes while he's talking so it keeps things interesting (as opposed to swifting through powerpoints). Fernflores is extremely knowledgeable on the subject and tells you everything you need to know for the midterm. He doesn't ask any trick questions and his expectations are pretty reasonable/consistent with lecture. As long as you go to lecture and put in at least 1% effort into this class, you will pass easily. Highly recommend!

I switched into the major a while ago, and I've made it a priority to take as many classes with him as possible. He is extremely clear about what he wants in his classes, and is open to discussion and ideas about how to present the information to his classes more clearly. He's obviously passionate about the subject he teaches, and is extremely approachable in office hours. There is no downside to taking him. Philosophy can get tough, but he walks you through it and welcomes opportunities to re-explain things until you've got it.

Prof. Fernflores was a good teacher overall -- he's obviously a very smart man that knows the subject well. However, I couldn't help but get the feeling that maybe he'd rather be lecturing to a group of graduate students, as opposed to 130 students taking the class as a GE (and were, thus, unexposed to the subject previously). With that being said, Fernflores did his best to be understanding of this fact and tried to explain everything in a clear/"dumbed down" manner. He started out at a very slow pace, which was helpful, but continued to speed things up every week (a little faster lectures, a little bit more notes, etc). This was rather annoying, but perhaps he did this to make the class more challenging? He types lecture notes during class, but they are pretty bare bones and basically serve as an outline for the readings. Fernflores will send the notes out prior to every test, but if you don't attend class and have more detailed notes it can be difficult to make the proper connections and study well. The best way to study for this class is to thoroughly fill out the reading questions and know the information that pertains to them -- there are about 8-12 for each test. The information from the reading questions will be most of what's on the test, but some questions from the notes (that aren't in his reading questions) will also be on the test so gloss over/make notecards for those as well. Finally, Fernflores sends out 5 "Sample Questions" and their answers before each exam. Make sure you know these, as 2-3 show up on each exam word for word. I'm a Philosophy major and I felt that the exams were more difficult than they had to be because of the way Fernflores creates his questions and answer choices. Oftentimes, his questions would ask about things I definitely studied and knew the answers to in my head, but were worded in such an unnecessarily confusing way (often not the way he words things in his notes) that I had trouble answering them. To Fernflores' credit, he noticed that people weren't doing well on his exams and gave us an extra credit online quiz that allowed us to earn back 3 points on the 2nd exam. Don't let me scare you, though. I did get an A in the course and I felt like I learned a lot and will be taking another class with him. But, if you want a more upbeat, funny, and easygoing guy for a GE Phil course, I suggest you take Prof. Jeremy Dickinson who teaches Phil 231.

I definitely lucked out getting Fernflores for philosophy. I had him for a large lecture, so he waved the writing requirements. The whole class was based off of three test: two midterms and a cumulative final. All of them were 30 questions, multiple choice. He explains things easily. Repeats himself until you are very sure you get it. Answers questions in class. He has a way of just talking about something forever in a circle (made it a bit boring for me at 8 am), but it made it clear. And if he doesn't have time to cover something in lecture, it won't be on a test. My friend did not read a page of philosophy and probably got an A (we just took the final so I'm not positive yet). I did read everything but Hume (got busy at the end of the quarter) and got a very easy A. Overall, glad I got this class.

I loved Fernflores. I took him for quarter plus and he did a fantastic job clearly explaining the philosophers arguments and readings. The in class activities can become a bit tedious but are totally worth it because talking among your peers really helps with understanding. He is willing to help and wants to explain philosophy without giving any of his own opinions or beliefs. Its purely what they philosophers argue and you wont have to worry about writing towards an opinion in order to get a good grade. Definitely recommend taking him!

Professor Fernflores is an amazing professor. He presents the material clearly, and makes it very clear what is expected to be known for the test. He's super helpful during office hours and just all around a great guy and a great professor. I can't wait to take him again!

For those saying that this guy presents his material clearly....are you serious? This guy words his tests so ridiculously that you'll fail even if you put in hours and hours of studying. There is no way to prepare for his tests other than to randomly guess and see what you get at the end of it. What an absolute joke of a class, and of a professor. All this class has done has concreted my initial belief that "philosophy" professors are an unnecessary joke with no importance to collegiate curriculum. There is no reason why this class should be a general education requirement. Save it for the stoneheaded english majors with no real career goals. The rest of us have more important classes to be paying for, where we actually can learn things to apply in life.

this class is boring but easy enough. take it pass fail and get the notes from a friend and you'll be fine

Dr. Fernflores' makes the material very relatable and interesting. The class is not hard at all to do well in, just pay attention to the notes he writes in class; if you even have the least bit of interest in philosophy you will probably get an A.

I had this professor's wife for Phil 231. She was a good philosophy professor and it was clear she knew her stuff. However, she wasn't good at explaining concepts well, but she really cares about student's understanding and will work with you in order for you to fully grasp the concept, it's just a matter of how patient you are with her. It's extremely hard to get an A in the class as anything less than a 95% is considered an A-. I did, but that was after getting over a 93% on the final, which was not normal as I only got 90% on the 2 midterms. It is possible to get an A, but you have to show you really care, grasp the concepts, and have been consistently getting A's on everything (tests and quizzes). The tests are multiple choice and the quizzes are essays. All in all, not a bad philosophy professor.

Excellent instructor. I was dreading taking a writing intensive philosophy class but professor Fernflores presented the material in a clear, interesting way. He got so into the lectures that it was hard to not get excited about what he was talking about. He is a pretty easy grader too. He doesn\'t seem to care if you are good at proper essay formats and all that; he just cares if you know the material and can present it in a clear way.

Professor Fernflores explains concepts, that may be difficult to grasp at first glance, with ease. He makes the class interesting and addresses questions with clear answers. He is very nice and cares about the subject and the students. The class consisted of a midterm, a final, couple of quizzes, and participation. He prepares the students well for the assignments. It is a writing intensive class, so do not expect multiple choice questions. I would recommend PHIL 321 for students who know a lot about science or have a passion for it and had taken previous philosophy courses. The content may be dry for some people. Overall, 321 with Fernflores was great! :)

Good speaking voice, clear and understandable. Readings were very difficult, but he always explained them much better in class. He was open to answering questions that students had during class to make sure that everyone understood the concepts being presented.

The readings are tedious for non-PHIL majors like me, but Dr Fernflores does an excellent job of explaining the main points of every excerpt and is extremely transparent with his requirements of students. I really didn't understand much of the readings but regularly went into office hours, and received an A without much stress. If you want to learn how scientific thinking evolved in the academic sphere, I cannot think of a better way than to do it with Dr Fernflores.

During this entire quarter all I could think about was how this professor reminded me of that small little dog that runs through the back of scene 23 in The Incredibles by Pixar. Seriously, if you look it up you will only be able to see it...