This was the WORST class that i've taken ever. Even if you have the slightest interest in philosophy, I wouldn't recommend taking this class with this professor. He was extremely boring and very hard to follow. His lecture style is quite odd, it's like he's talking off the top of his head telling stories, and you never know what's important to write down. The class was VERY unorganized, he didn't even have syllabus online until a few weeks into the course, and even after that, he kept changing it. Everything that i know from this course came from discussion, so if you are still thinking about taking this class, i'd urge going to discussion.

Sweet guy, bad Professor. As much as I'd like to say that the orange juice and cookies during the midterm and final were worth this class, they weren't. Saying he is disorganized is an understatement. He's a good guy, and seemed very knowledgeable of the material, but I can't stand a Professor who doesn't act Professionally. Good guy, headache of a class, still, it's not hard I considered it fairly easy.

Professor Normore is one of the most disorganized people I have ever met. He didn't get the course reader printed until 6th week because he couldn't decide what the course would cover, even though this is the third time he's taught this class. I'm sure he stlll doesn't know what the course is going to cover.

He arbitrarily assigns homework and set about 3 different dates for the midterm; needless to say, it is impossible to plan ahead. Normore tends to stutter a bit and refuses to use a microphone, despite the fact that students complain that they can't hear him during every lecture. The TAs try their bests (Lindsey is a great TA) but they can only do so much to combat Normore's scatterbrained methods. All of that compounded with the 9AM start time, and this will be one of the most boring and pointless GEs you will ever take at UCLA.

Despite his flaws as a professor, Normore is very approachable, but that doesn't remedy the fact that I've learned more this quarter from Sparknotes and Wikipedia than from lecture.

Calvin Normore is the coolest cat in town. His lectures are good, but I would recommend you make sure to do the reading to really get a handle on the material and to learn some of the stuff you'll be tested on that Calvin doesn't cover. Also, Calvin might spend two weeks on a reading that will be tested on as much as one he talks about for half a lecture. Unfortunately, all his TAs were extremely picky graders despite that many of the students had never taken a Philosophy class before. I've been told by many people that Megan was a particulary incompetent and random grader. Luckily the final is very fair and not too difficult. Despite the problems I would definitely recommend the class. The Calvin Normore Experience cannot be passed up.

Normore is a GREAT professor, you can tell he is very brilliant, and his lectures are interesting. HOWEVER, the depth of the material which you are expected to understand isn't really covered in lecture (which he makes clear). The final wasn't too bad, but I just couldn't help feeling like I didn't grasp the material.

Yea...agreed. The concepts are really interesting, but he just doesn't explain anything very well. It's really hard to understand and the course material is very thick. Try to get a good TA, mine didn't have a very good handle on the material so it was hard to present her with questions. It's a good class, but just watch out.

ehh.. he's not really all that these reviews make him out to be.. mostly hard to understand.. just be careful with the TA's... if your TA is David Goldman, switch sections or just drop the class because he is a super hard grader and doesn't help u with the class at all. yep.

When I got mono during finals week, Prof. Normore was the only professor who cared enough to offer a make-up final and let me take it once I was feeling better. And yes, he still brought me orange juice! While I don't quite have my grade back yet 8 weeks later, I know his slight disorganization outside of class is probably just because he has more interesting things to think about in his genius mind... Take this professor if you want a UCLA professor who cares for once.

Prof. Normore not only makes the subject interesting, but he also tries to help the class acheive high grades. He offered an easy extra credit assignment and if you did well on the final, he boosted up your grade from previous assignments and the last test. He really cares about his students, and is extremely smart. I give him the highest of recommendations.

Professor Normore (or Calvin as he likes to be called) is truly one of the most brilliant people I've ever met. As it says in all these other reviews, he just seems to know everything about everything. He is also extremely friendly and caring towards his students (the OJ and cookies were a great touch). While the material is very difficult the workload is not very hard, I got by with an A in the class and skipped a few readings and lectures. THE REVIEW SESSIONS ARE EXTREMELY HELPFUL!!! I can't stress how much better I understood the material after showing up for the session. Not only that, but he accommodates lazy students (like me :-P) by recording EVERY lecture and putting it up on the website. In short, TAKE HIS CLASSES if you are even remotely interested in philosophy. If you hate the material it won't make a difference but its really hard to hate the material with Calvin at the podium.