Flores, Francisco  

Flores used to teach the now defunct PHIL 125 Critical Thinking class, and boy to I think ctirically of him. His tests were absolute garbage, often relying on rephrasing definitions by changing one word to make them wrong. On the second test, I was so paralyzed wondering if each easy question was a trick question that I got a low grade, even though I had studied plenty. Also, he just plain looks like a dork.

He won't even look at you while he is lecturing and he likes to tell you that the coursework is elementary so if you don't understand it then you have a big problem. He doesn't explain it that well and uses superficial language. This guy has a major power trip problem. He says that it's okay if you don't finish all of the worksheet problems in class but then he suddenly changes his mind after a few minutes has passed and says that you are not up to par if you don't finish all of them. He gives you five whopping minutes to complete this task! He picks out his favorite and helps that person out. He eyes everyone else's worksheets like an eagle so he can scrap them if they make a mistake. He definitely enjoys his job so he can use his power to chase away all the "undesirables."

Professor Flores was very informative by explaining the main arguments and conclusions on all of the required readings. He stayed focused on the topics of discussion and thoroughly explained all concepts. He provided handouts that gave you specific things to think about and concentrate on, in order to help you understand what you were reading. I have a very difficult time reading philosophy, but by attending all the lectures and listening and studying, I was able to get a B. I just wanted to pass the class, but professor Flores made it much easier to understand. I think he does a great job

Prof. Flores, I thought was a fantastic teacher. I think the people that graded him low, just graded him based on the curriculum he had to teach, and not the teacher himself. I would often here students complain about how boring the lectures were, and how un-involved the students were throughout the course. Basically people would just say he was a plain poor teacher. But one concept escapes them: IT'S PHILOSOPHY. And not only that, the lower division courses (the one's people complained about the most) were INTRODUCTIONS to philosophy, thus it had to be mostly informative lectures rather than debate and involvement. I've already had a fairly good background in philosophy previous to Prof. Flores' class. And let me tell ya, going over ancient philosophers is no happy time. I'll even admit I've fallen asleep in his class once or twice. However, when I was loaded with caffeine, he explained the subject matter very clearly (perhaps even better than my past teachers), and he even clarified concepts I couldn't grasp previously (and this is even after being educated in one of the top humanities/philosophy high schools in the nation) Also when a student had a problem, he was able to clarify fairly well. He is also always available after class, and he is a very fair grader. Granted, since I did receive an A in the course, and having previous philosophy experience, my opinion may seem very questionable. But trust me, before I crashed Prof. Flores' class, all other lower division philosophy professors were just wretched and boring (even for a philosophy professor.) And remember, IT IS PHILOSOPHY. Philosophy, in general, can be about as exciting as watching all five rocky's in one sitting. So if you're looking for a fun, exciting, and invigorating philosophy class at Cal Poly, you need to do drugs. But until then, get Prof. Flores. He's about as nice as they come, and he'll make the pain a little more bearable.

Professor Flores had the difficult task of introducing three philosophers who were very different. It's easy to introduce a group of people when there is a common thread among them, but Professor Flores' clear and interesting presentations on such dissimilar thinkers demonstrates that he is a superior lecturer. He also provides thoughtful and informative comments on essays.

LOL. That first evaluation on the very bottom....that guy/girl is a complete moron. Just listen to what he/she says, you can already tell that (s)he's the biggest idiot. (S)He didn't know which easy question was a trick question that (s)he failed the test? LOL. Thats hilarious. I never heard of anyone who took an easy test and failed it. And his/her last line, thats just classic. "Plus he looks like a dork." Thats a great way to evaluate a person, based on their looks. He/she couldn't think of anything bad to say so they commented on his outward appearance. Thats a logical falacy my friend. Weren't you just IN a critical thinking class ABOUT falacies? LOL. I can hardly believe that people like him/her actually exist in the world. Hey guy (or girl), do us all a favor: Don't procreate. As far as Prof. Flores goes, he's a good guy. He's very thorough, very fair, and genuinely is a good person. Although he isn't the greatest looking guy, that has no relation to his character.

I tried to take an Into to Philosophy class once before and had to drop it because it was so mind-numbingly boring that I couldn

Good teacher. Its a hard subject to start with but he does a great job making the material understandable. I would recomend him to anyone that has to take an intro philosophy class. Gives test questions before midterm and that really helped!

Ok when it comes to a dull subject like philosophy, this guy knows what he's talking about. I went in knowing nothing about philosophy and came out a philosophical guru. Take Flores, but expect to put effort into his class. He is very interesting and always begins with a "Well good-afternoon everyone". The grading is a bit hard on the midterm and final, but all and all this Canadian knows how to teach.

Flores is a really nice and knowledgable teacher. He makes a lot of the philosophy reading easy to understand. He is one of the hardest graders I've ever encountered though. I caught on to the material pretty easily and walked out of the class everyday with a head full of crazy philosophical thoughts. I guess he wasn't satisfied with my writing though, which is weird. By the end of the quarter I was aware of what he was looking for as far as content goes and I thought I gave it to him in the final. I bombed one of the questions on the midterm because I missed the lecture on it and didn't get the notes and I got a decent C. I went into the final ready, with great examples. I had all the reading down and was in a position to give a great explanation. I ended up scoring lower on that than I did on the midterm. So I am kind of upset. I walked out of the final with an A. In conclusion, this is a great professor to take if you really want to understand the material, however, if you are looking to bring your GPA up with this class then go and talk to him everyday and study your ass off. Otherwise, expect a C.

Professor Flores...is a tad bit boring, but he was alrite being that it was philosophy. There were 4 assignments, a midterm, and a final. Three mini books. The class is not fun. It really depends if you are a reader or not. He grades kind of tough, so beware.

Prof. Flores was wonderful. He was very clear in his lectures and made a point to make sure all the students understood the concepts. All of is assignments were clearly presented and he was more than willing to answer questions through email and blackboard. I would definately recommend Flores to anyone. He was able to get me interested in philosophy and he used real life examples to help the students understand better. He also designed all of the assignments in a way that they would actually help the student understand the concepts. Everything had a purpose, there were no bullshit assignments, and I appreciated that.

Take all that praise that there is for Professor Fern, and apply it to Professor Flores. Their styles are VERY similar. Work was this: blurb on personal identity, midterm, dialogue between Descartes and Socrates, blurb on Hume and 2nd half of Descartes, Letter to Hume, and then final. Lectures in between. Class is easy if you can understand the arguments, if you know the arguments for everything, expect to get an A. And to know the argument means to be able to say it in your own words and come up with your own examples. Class was easy for me, although, it may have a large part with the fact that half the quarter was taught by Fern, and Flores was nice enough to only give a final on whatever he taught. Hard parts are understanding Plato's argument for the immortality of the soul, Descartes' argument for the existence of God and the external world, and Hume's belief that our knowledge of the of matters of fact is probablistic at best, and his agnosticism towards the existence of the external world.

Phil 230... another god damn GE everyone has to take. The material (Plato, Descartes and Hume) thoroughly sucked and I did not learn ANYTHING in the ten weeks I had this class. It seems that Flores wants you to regurgitate what he says in class on each assignment but what he says in lecture are only bits and pieces of what the complete idea is. Flores IS cool in the sense that he'll give you a list of questions of what he's going to ask on the next assignment so you can at least study for/prepare for it, even though he doesn't ask every single question. My class was silent at 8am MW, so I don't know if it was just me or if anyone else had trouble with material. But I am thankful that it's over... good luck!

I think prof. Flores is a great guy. He always began with a "Good Afternoon Everyone," and he spoke in a very polite and proper manner. He is very nice to all his students and I don't think he said one negative thing all quarter. However, philosophy is a rather dry subject, but this guy knows what he is talking about. Unfortunately, some of us didn't know what he was talking about. You have to make sure that you *completely* understand the arguements that Plato, Descartes, and Hume make. Go to office hours and ask him, or use email; he's very good about getting back to his students. His tests are very straightforward. He gives you the questions to the test before hand, so make sure that you can answer them before you go to class. If you want a perfect score, make sure to be very thorough in your answers, because he is rather picky (he does give you the question in advance, so its understandable). Otherwise the class is pretty painless, and the books are cheap (but a must).

Awesome teacher. But he got screwed by a 130 person philosophy class. Everything was uber-easy scantron, and I got a 100% in the class (the class average was about 90% in the class). I hated this, as a CSC major who found philosophy fascinating, but it was the Philosophy department's fault, not Flores'. He was a great teacher.

Professor Flores has got to be one of the best teachers at Cal Poly. He was always very careful to answer any questions or clarify anything that students were unsure about. Even though the class was 2 hours long, I looked forward to going everyday because he was so good at teaching the material. He's totally approachable if you ever need to go to his office hours, and is sincerely concerned with teaching students to enjoy philosophy. Anybody that has to take Philosophy should DEFINITELY try and get Flores, you won't regret it!

Prof Flores is a really good teacher for this course. He's very into the material and tries his best to present it in an interesting, organzied fashion. He'll always give you a list of questions that the midterm essay questions will be pulled from, as well as making one of the three take home. He modified our syllabus so we didn't have to read the extra material at the end because we always asked questions and it took up extra class time (Which he encourages). Make sure to ask him to post lecture summaries online since they make excellent study guides as well as notes in case you don't go to class. He always goes over last classes' material before he starts the new stuff to, which helps reenforce the ideas. Good teacher!

Taking this class with Professor Flores has had a profound effect on me - namely, it inspired me to pursue a philosophy minor. Great lecturer, very polite, and does an excellent job of explaining what can very easily be very boring subjects. He speaks very clearly, and is easy to follow if you print out the lecture notes ahead of time that he posts online. His midterms were a combination of scantron and a written essay, and a final which was all scantron. The best parts about Flores is that he is willing to explain things to you in depth and to clarify questions you may have during office hours or after class and is very patient in explaining, never looking down on you. The cons about Flores is that a lot of what he wants is regurgitation, and it is really hard to get a perfect or near perfect score on anything written unless you are a philosophy major. Bottom line, you will have to work for an A but if you go to all of his lectures you may not even have to do the actual reading and should leave with no less than a B.

Professor Flores is the best teacher to take for this class. If you have the means, I highly recommend getting him as your teacher. He is not a harsh grader and his lectures are not nearly as boring as they could be.

One thing about Flores is that he repeats the course material. A lot. he usually goes over things at least 4 times, so the tests are easy enough. 3 multiple choice exams, 2 with essays. The multi choice is easy, the essays are easy if you go to his office hours to talk about writing philosophy. Another thing about Flores is the class gets boring. Many times at the end of the quarter i fell asleep. but he is a good teacher

He's pretty boring, but I figure most philosophy teachers are. Overall, the class was alright, I didn't really get engaged in the material, but I walked away with a B without putting in too much work. He's probably not the best, and probably not the worst.

This prof was able to teach Phil in a way that you can understand. Simple set up of quizzes and in class essay tests. He gives you the questions that will be on the test...all you have to do is go to class and if you read all of the material you'll get an A.

Flores is by far the best teacher ive had at poly. philosophy is so detailed and hard to understand unless you have a professor like flores. he presents the material clearly, orderly and answers any question in depth. get flores for phil. he lets students ask questions by email and then sends the questions with answers to all the other students. the questionas and answers really help for writing papers an before exams

If you want to understand what's going on in your philosophy class, take Professor Flores. This guy is one of the best philosophy teachers I've seen. I was a little turned off at first because he doesn't encourage as much discussion as I would expect in a philosophy class, but in the end it's understandable because the class covers so much material and his lectures answer most, if not all, of the questions we would have discussed! His lectures are amazingly clear -- He explains things down to the smallest detail and answers questions effectively. He is passionate about philosophy... and contrary to what some of the dumbasses in my class think, passion is a good thing. If it weren't for that kind of passion, he wouldn't send email questions and answers to the whole class, he wouldn't spend entire classes helping students understand the concepts for their papers and exams, and he wouldn't bother answer the stupid questions that get asked over and over. This guy really wants his students to understand what he's teaching, and he'll do just about anything to help them. I honestly didn't do any of the reading except for "Apology" but I managed to pull high scores on all of the papers and exams just by going to class and listening to the lectures. Seriously, if you don't do well in this class it's your own fault... you're not going to get a philosophy teacher much better than Flores.

I was not a big fan of Phil but Flores made it enjoyable. His teaching style is all lecture but he explains everything you need to know in his lectures. I was worried about the reading early on but discovered that he coveres all of it in class to a certain extent. Going to class is key because he likes to cover so much material each day. On his mini essays he is very helpful in office hours or via the e-mails that he sends the whole class. For the tests he gives you say 4 questions beforehand while only one will show up on the essay test. The e-mails he sends out to help you study are great. If you are dreading Phil, be sure to take it with Flores, he is one of the best.

i took this class at 7 am, which was killer, but attending class is crucial. if you don't want to read or have a hard time understanding the readings, flores does an excellent job in explaining what is going on. i highly suggest taking phil with flores.

Professor Flores is a very good teacher. He explians the matter very well and answers all questions. He uses emails as an extention to the class and sends email with answers to question to all students. The class is only out of 100pts though. Three 10pt mini essays, two 25pt Midterms, and a 20pt final. Pay close attention in class and you dont even have to do all the reading even though it helps. Overall you can get a B pretty easy but need to put in a little extra effort to get the A since there are so little points in the class. I would recommend Prof Flores to any who needs to take PHIL230.

If at all possible, take Flores. I thought philosophy was easy, but it turns out that is only the case because I had Flores. All my friends who were in other philosophy classes struggled all quarter, but with Flores I had a firm grasp on the material all quarter long. He's not a professor you'll remember for the rest of your life, but you'll be glad you took his class.

I would not take this class from him. I showed up to every class i had read the material and was ready to talk about it in class i even when to office hours a few times. I failed the first test. For no good reason. He would actlike you could write anything that you wanted and then you would get a horrible grade. i just don't think that you should be able to put the time in to a class and fail i mean as you can see i ended up with a C- but i went into the final hoping for a D-. So you can decide for yourself there are like four homeworks/quizes, and three essay tests that you have a limited time for. Have fun! All i can say is i'm DONE!

Probably the WORST TEACHER on campus!!! Do not take Flores!! He is a DICK!!! Said after the 1st test you could retake it if it significantly affects your grade. My grade was affected by 4.25% and he said 5% and more was significant. Ended up getting a 77% for a wonderful C. THANK YOU FLORES!!!

Ok, the classes are just him reading the assigned reading from the night before. It was so annoying that I stopped going to class after the first week. Just remember to keep up with the reading

Flores is a solid teacher. Phil is pretty boring in general so the lectures weren't always the most exciting things, but he did a great job of explaining the material. You may be overwhelmed with all the reading at first, but you will find that doing the reading isn't that important. However, since Flores explains all the material in class so well, attending class is essential if you want a decent grade. The exam multiple choice questions are fairly easy and you can do well on the essays if you prepare well and seek help from him. If you have to take this class, take Flores.

Flores was the best teacher I've had at Cal Poly so far. His lectures were well organized and made the material understandable and interesting. I'm guessing for most students it's not the most exciting material, but I would highly recommend him anyway even if you don't like the material just because his classes are very bearable and he doesn't ramble or act like any of the 1-star teachers on polyratings. Not an easy class, but not a hard one either so just pay attention to the lectures, ask questions, and do the reading and you shouldn't have much trouble.

Don\'t let the rest of these evaluations fool you. If you are not a complete retard, you will get at least a B in the class - thats what class average is right now. If you take good notes, you\'ll get an A. Plain and simple. My only complaint is that this guy takes FOREVER to get assignments back. FOREVER.

Great guy. Philosophy is weird (but interesting). It takes a bit of effort to wrap your mind around. His class isn't that hard, but you do have to put in your time (which I didn't, unfortunately). If you read all the readings, write the papers before the morning of the due date, come to class, and actually study for the exams, you'll do fine. I'm fairly confident that I could have gotten an A if I did this. Oh, and if I hadn't taken it at 8am. PS - I love his Canadian accent.

Philosophy is a great course. He goes over the reading in class so you can not read and then take notes. The tests are moderate but need to be in essay form. Do not restate notes as anwsers. The paragraph questions should be anwsered with comparisons and other info pulled in from the outside. I didn't get full credit because I just restated his lecture.

Flores is awesome. He explains the material very clearly which seems like a huge task, considering this is philosophy. It was in a huge lecture hall, over one hundred students, so the make-up of the course was 4 tests, each worth 25% of your grade. All multiple choice (40 questions). What makes Flores unique is that when he answers one persons email, he forwards his response to the whole class, so every student gets the opportunity to see the question and the answer...pretty cool. He goes out of his way to clarify questions. He does cancel office hours quite often so don't be so dependable on him. Overall, i have heard a lot worse about other philosophy profs so your pretty safe with Flores. BTW, I think he changed his last name to Fernflores.

Fernflores, Flores, has a strong passion for philosophy; however, Phil 230 is quite possibly the most painful class one will ever endure. Since everyone has to take it, try to avoid the 250 student lecture, although it seems like a good idea because there are no papers, in the long run it is much more difficult. A majority of the class (for the ones that actually showed up) would zone out around 15 minutes into the 2 hr lecture. The large class size unintentionally encourages students to disconnect from the subject due to the lack of discussion. Please adhere to this warning take the smaller class…Fernflores and all the other Phil professors; I believe would be a much stronger in that sort of environment. Class is 3 midterms and a cumulative final.

Fernflores was a good professor. He was really organized in his notes but the in the large lecture hall, it was really easy to zone out after 20 minutes. We had 3 midterms and a final each other 25% based on multiple choice test. This was the easy part, but the questions are based on his lecture notes almost exclusively, so it's good to pay attention and write good notes from the over-head. We didn't cover the entire books required for this class, and often times reading the books didn't help for the tests as the notes were sufficient. This class was easy for me as I've had prior exposure to philosophy, so tread carefully if you're new to philosophy and logic.

He was a great teacher but i took the class in a small classroom format and we had only three grades two midterms and a final and they were all based on 4 essays so i would recommend taking him in a large class format if at all possible because he grades the midterms and the final the same way they are all pass or fail for two questions and the other two are critically critiqued. Therefore it is tougher to get threw there were only 60 points total but he is a good teacher i would recommend him it just requires some studying. Ohhh and you dont really need to buy the books at all.

i didnt do shit. i went to three classes each time drunk and high and the finals. didn\'t read. all i really did was study like 3 hours for each exam and pulled off a C- and im bad student. he puts all the notes on his blog. if i really gave a shit i could have recieved a good grade. recommend him

Flores is good professor, but not very personable. He is very clear about what he expects on tests and assignments, he is very fair. There are 2 midterms + a cum. final, and 3 short papers. He grades the tests fairly hard. Overall, I would recomend him.

He was okay but his way of lecturing does not set students up to get good grades. He tries to trick you on the midterm by writing the dumbest questions. Class has 3 midterms and final and that was all. He gets annoying and is hard to keep paying attention. Had my final at 7 am and he wouldnt start the final at 8 because it would be against school policy and he could absolutely not do it. Lame. Phil suck but you gotta do it so good luck.

I took a class with Flores Spring quarter. I thought it would be easy (come on, PHILOSOPHY) but it ended up being very, very difficult. I truly feel sorry for people who have him for lower-division phil classes. For our class, however (German philosophy) I thought he was great. Just pay attention in class and the test answers are easy. OK, so he's a little picky on the writing, but I learned an incredible amount in this class. But he should stick to teaching upper-division classes, because for Phil 230/231 he'd be too hard, I think.

I have had German and Phil of Sci. with this prof. He is improving but can be very confusing. One nice thing is he gives test questions ahead of time. I found if I pre-wrote test questions I did well on test. Saved a lot of time reviewing information I would not be tested on. Prof. is very inteligent but has a hard time bringing his understanding of material to a level that the average student of phil. will understand.

The class is not yet completed but i have already taken a class from him before (cuz i had too.) he is an intellegent man BUT can not Teach!!! i have never been bitter before about taking a class but with this man you will know what i mean if you take him. I am getting an 85% in the class but i stopped going about a month into the quarter. he is useless as a teacher. I just worked hard and taught the material to myself. I think that you may be worse off if you go to class(and I am not alone) perhaps he should become a writer. DO NOT TAKE HIM.

Flores is probably the best philosophy professor that ive taken. The subject matter isnt exactly sexy, but he does a good job at presenting it in a clear manner. He's a bit rough when it comes to grading and an A is a little hard to come by due to the rigid 90/80/70 scale. But a B is easy to work at if you just put a little effort into it.

DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS UNLESS YOU ARE (ONE) A PHIL MAJOR AND (TWO) KNOW A LOT ABOUT PHYSICS. This class is a GE, but do not take it for a GE, take another class for the C4. If you are a PHIL major you will like him, he is a good teacher if you understand phil and physics.

What is the difference between intelligence and pseudo-intelligence? This class. This is probably the worst C4 class you can take. Do not take this class if you are not a philosophy major (if you are a Phil Major, I feel sorry for you). You will spend hours reading confusing, and poorly written pseudo-intellectual essays about nothing (who said what). This class will not broaden your critical thinking (which is much needed to exercise during college), in return, you

I love Flores! The course material is difficult but it's not his fault. He does a good job of repeating things in different ways and really clarifying what he's saying. He is very precise about the way he explains things but you have to be that way in PHIL. The reading can be confusing but Flores does a good job of clarifying. I don't recommend this class for non-PHIL majors. It requires too much pior knowledge of philosophy. PHIL 230/231 is not enough of a prerequisite. Good Luck. Take good notes!

I would not recommend taking this course to satisfy your C4 GE, especially if you do not have a background in philosophy. This is not a knock on Prof. Fernflores, but rather the course subject matter itself. The readings are extremely abstract, boring, and uninteresting. With that said, Fernflores is a good lecturer. He is very articulate in his speech and presentation skills. The course consists of two 700 word response papers worth 10% each, and a midterm and final which are in-class essays worth 40% each. In retrospect, although I still managed to earn a \"B\" in the class, I would not have taken this course knowing what I know now.

This isn't his full last name but there are more evaluations here so I thought I'd add. To be clear, I don't have very many negative things to say about Fernflores. He's a very nice, positive guy who really loves what he does. He's incredibly intelligent, to the point where I frequently became lost in "simple" discussion because I do not have the background he has. 321 is heavily based on language and theories in physics and science. If you don't feel strongly in these fields, I wouldn't recommend this class. It's pretty challenging and there is so much grandiose reading that even Fernflores says you probably won't understand. I'm not here to tell you not to take the class, because if it sounds like an interesting subject to you, he is a pretty cool professor. However, I'm writing this to warn people like me not to take 321 if you aren't enamored with philosophy. Don't do it. Take another C4. Run.

I have taken a few classes from Professor Fernflores, and I would gladly take him in the future. He is very kind and easy to talk to if you are having trouble, although I never have had much trouble in his classes because he presents the material so well. I would highly recommend him.

What else is there to say? Fine person, nothing interesting. Class was meh... Blah, blah, blah... Fine person.