Chat with the Human Nature and Society Peer Tutors
This article was part of a series by the Board of Student Academic Support Services (SASS) that interviewed OHS course peer tutors about the courses they tutor. You can book an appointment with these peer tutors through the OHS Writing Center, which can be found on the OHS Gateway site.
SASS: What did you enjoy about HNS?
Jacob Brown (‘22): I enjoyed learning about the different theories about what people are.
Apsara Kasiraman (‘22): I enjoyed all the great, engaging, discussions we had in class because we didn't only talk about the content of the readings and lectures, but also how everything connects to real life.
Alina Rahim (‘22): One of the many things I enjoyed about HNS, was the discussions in class! Not only are you able to add your own point to the discussion, but you are able to craft stronger ideas for your short assignments by listening to other students' ideas and branching out to your own points. Since Human Nature and Society is about... well humans, during discussions you are able to relate to every point being made, which makes it a lot easier to understand such a confusing subject!
Eli Gendreau-Distler (‘22): I really enjoyed pushing myself to think harder about what characterizes a human, especially in class discussions. I liked our debates because they forced me to defend my opinions, which required a thorough understanding of the material and evidence for my claims.
SASS: What challenged you the most in HNS? How did you overcome those challenges?
Jacob: At certain points, I had difficulty understanding the points some philosophers were trying to make, but by talking with other students, I was able to, if not fully understand them, at least get the important points.
Apsara: Certain readings were very challenging, especially those by Hume and Mill. Instead of just rereading, I decided to take it one paragraph, sometimes even one sentence, at a time. First, I would read each section. Then, I would underline the key ideas in that section. I would do the same for every remaining section in the text. Once I had finished, I highlighted the main idea(s) of the text. Another strategy was to ask myself what the text is saying in each sentence. Then, I'd find what the main idea is and put it in my own words. When I got it for each sentence, I started looking at the bigger picture; I did that same thing for each paragraph, and then page, and eventually the entire reading.
Alina: What challenged me most during HNS was probably the extremely philosophical readings. It is very hard to keep up with the readings, and the fact that they are very confusing and interestingly worded does not always help. One thing that I did to make it more manageable was, going over the assigned reading, or at least the section that gave me the most trouble, 2-3 times, and seeing if it made more sense. If that isn't very helpful, I would suggest reaching out to your amazing teacher, and going to office hours and asking them to clarify a certain section of the reading; that always does the trick. ;)
Eli: The most difficult part of Human Nature and Society for me was expressing my beliefs in writing. This required a solid understanding of the material as well as a coherent argument. While writing, I often discovered that my beliefs were difficult to support or needed revisions. I became more confident in these papers by outlining my ideas before I started writing to ensure my argument was supportable and by revising my work multiple times.
SASS: What tips do you have that could be useful to students taking HNS?
Jacob: In all honesty, the best advice I can give is that if you don't understand something, ask someone else, some philosophers are really bad at making their points clear.
Apsara: If you feel extremely frustrated with a particular assignment, just take a break. I'm not saying you should just give up every time you encounter a challenge, but when it becomes emotional, its better to step away for a bit, calm down, then come back. Sometimes, taking a new approach when revisiting can help you realize something about the assignment that you didn't see initially.
Alina: Like I mentioned previously, reaching out is key! If you are struggling with something don't be afraid to reach out for some help, I still struggle with this myself as well! Reaching out to your teacher or stopping by office hours is a great way to reduce confusion and to get a handle on your work. Another tip would be to stay on top of things. This seems like a very common tip, but it really does make a huge difference and it keeps you from getting unnecessarily stressed out, which happens to the best of us. If your lectures and reading assignments are due before your class, I would recommend doing them two days before, so you have one day to reach out to your teacher if you have any questions. Lastly, I would say to take time out for things you enjoy. After a long week of studying and working on assignments I would do something I enjoyed, such as sketching or photography. I realized this improved not only my mental health, but my academics as well. Taking time out to take some pictures or create something, kept me from burning out throughout the year! So I highly suggest taking 30 to 45 minutes out, to just do something you enjoy.
Eli: I would recommend that students leave themselves plenty of time to complete the readings for this course. Many of the readings contain a lot of information and are written in older English, which made them difficult for me to understand. Having sufficient time to understand the complicated material made a huge impact on my learning in this course.
SASS: About how much time a week did you spend working on assignments and preparing for discussion sessions in HNS?
Jacob: It varied, but generally 3-4 hours.
Alina: I am not entirely sure because for each topic it varied depending on my confidence in the subject. I would say for reading around 45 minutes to 2 hours, depending on the assigned reading, and for weekly short assignments around 4-6 hours, for discussions in class, I would normally form points from my short assignments, which helped reduce a lot of extra time, and lastly for studying, I would suggest 3-6 hours, but like I said, this varies depending on your confidence and skill in the subject.
Eli: On average, I spent 3-4 hours per week working on Human Nature and Society, but more when a paper was assigned. I spent most of this time on readings, which took a while to understand.
SASS: What was your favorite topic covered in HNS?
Jacob: My favorite topic was probably J.S. Mill's On Liberty.
Apsara: My favorite topic covered in this course was the state of nature. Imagine that there's no social structure to the world and humans are free to roam around and do whatever they want. It's really fascinating to see what different philosophers predict would happen in this scenario because, while what they are saying is completely possible, there are so many other possible outcomes because human nature isn't completely predictable.
Alina: My favorite topic discussed in this course, would probably be about innate features we as humans possess. This seems very broad, especially since the class is "Human Nature and Society," but not only are discussions about innate features extremely fun and interesting, but they apply to real life. While debating if language is innate or not, you are able to pick up real life examples and use them to initiate deeper discussion in class, and that to me is extremely fascinating: you are able to relate something that is actually happening currently, to a topic being discussed in class!
Eli: My favorite topic was debating whether the state of nature or society is the natural state of humans. This topic was interesting because both arguments are logical, which made it challenging to argue against either view. I feel that the state of nature vs society debate made the biggest impact on my learning in JHNS2 because it was so challenging to make a coherent claim about the topic.
SASS: What assignments did you enjoy doing in HNS?
Jacob: I have always liked writing and thus my favorite assignments were the papers.
Apsara: I enjoyed reading certain texts, especially those by Hobbes and Rousseau, because many arguments espoused by them hold true even today.
Alina: My favorite assignments were probably weekly short assignments. While writing short assignments you get to craft your own opinion on a certain topic and eventually get so lost in your own point you end up opposing it in the end anyway, this has happened to me way too many times! This is always fun because you get to look at your original point from a completely different view, and it helps you craft a stronger argument. Short assignments also are extremely helpful, because while writing them, since each topic relates to what you are discussing in class that week, you are able to take points from your short assignment and use them to initiate a deeper discussion in class the next day!
Eli: My favorite assignments were the writing assignments because they really forced me to develop and improve my arguments. Revising my claims was enjoyable because I had to carefully compare the texts with my claims and revise my arguments to fit within possibilities of the text.
SASS: Did you have any experiences with HNS that could encourage those who are uncertain of the course to want to take it?
Jacob: I don't have any specific experiences with the course that wouldn't be idiosyncrasies, but I will say that I find the information covered to be something that will have an increasing importance in the world.
Alina: Human Nature and Society has been one of my favorite courses at OHS. This was my first experience taking a philosophy course and I was not disappointed at all! Not only did I have an amazing teacher, (Dr. Hicks!!), but the structure of the course was extremely helpful and efficiently laid out, which made it easier to find homework assignments and assigned readings. Since I had no experience in philosophy at all, I was a little nervous for taking on such a challenging course; gladly, it did not start off very abruptly and that helped me, as a new student, ease into such a confusing subject. Overall, HNS is a great introduction to philosophy, and even if you don't think you have an interest in philosophy, this is still definitely a course to try out anyway!
Eli: In our JHNS2 class discussions, I consistently found myself being pushed to rethink my opinions. This was challenging, but also fun in that I had to use the texts and consider my own experiences and beliefs. This is a really valuable skill, especially in my current english and core classes.
SASS: Why do you think HNS is a core course instead of just a normal science, history, government or English course? What academic skills did this course help you improve?
Apsara: I think this is a core class because it covers human nature. Human nature isn't something that cleanly fits into the field of science, history, government, or English; it's everything. It's science because it's psychology and it talks about some of humans' instincts. It's history because different texts may have different historical contexts. It's government because some topics we cover are related to educating society or the effects of being ruled by a government. Lastly, it's also an English course because you have to read and write a lot.
Alina: Personally, I find that HNS exercised my ability to craft arguments in a structured form and be able to convey such confusing ideas into simpler points. Overall, HNS also helped me think of my day to day life differently, and with a different view on things that often go overlooked and more generally, it helped me improve my writing skills as well haha. However, what you get out of this course depends on the effort you put into it, sounds cliche, but it is true! Good luck!
Eli: I think that JHNS2 is a core course because the skills taught apply to a wide variety of courses. For example, being able to analyze texts is useful in many subjects, and being able to rethink your opinions is useful in all subjects.
SASS: Any other comments on HNS?
Jacob: Make sure to have fun and not stress out too much.
Apsara: Be prepared to view human nature differently and think deeper about society and politics after taking this course.