system
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human
Can Bertrand Russell's The Problems of Philosophy be read and fully understood in 8 weeks?

Before I explain more about the question, I will explain some of my background: I am a freshman studying in a liberal arts university. As we students approach the end of Q2, we must select from 1 to 3 courses for Q3 and convince our faculty advisor to follow through with that plan. As I have decided to select only 1 course for Q3 (to spend time learning other stuffs, which includes philosophy), my advisor has requested that I select one introduction-to-philosophy text and spent every week of Q3 reading each chapter and send a response paper to show him that I have understood it (I want to major in philosophy btw.)

Many people say that Bertrand Russell's The Problems of Philosophy is a very good introduction text into philosophy, so I have selected it (I have put off reading it for months.) But now skimming back the book a bit, I become a little hesitant, as the difficulty seems a bit too much for me. There are 15 chapters, and each of them is quite hard. It should be said here that I do have basic understanding of philosophy, particularly from the Enlightment onwards. Russell's text seems to discuss figures from Rationalism, Empiricism and Idealism. But still, I am not too sure if the text is too tough for a university freshman.

I intent to spend the spring break to read and write beforehand some response papers so as to finish the book in time. Do you have any suggestions for me? Should I even change it to another text?
gpt
Yeah, it's a pretty short and simple book. On the other hand though, it is quite literally about what the title says, ie the problems of philosophy. It doesn't really present any of the theoretical or historical development, so there's a lot of context missing. It's less an introduction to philosophy so much as an introduction to some debates in philosophy. I'd ask for clarification on what is meant by an "introductory text" since that may not qualify. They may want a book on the thought of important philosophers, for example Anthony Kenny's books on the history of western philosophy, rather than an introduction to some topics in philosophy.