This class was really easy. All you have to do is go to lecture. You don't need to buy any of the books, because Prof. McCumber explains everything you need to know from the books. (Well, the only reason you'd need them is to pull quotes.) Lectures are really boring, so take a laptop .. but still pay attention so you don't have to read. The papers are really easy to write. I did them last minute and got As.

I really hate philosophy so i really disliked this class' topic. Overall, I don't think I learned anything, but it was the easiest GE i've taken.

I never read a single assignment and ended up with a B+. GO TO LECTURE. I missed probably only 2 or 3, and I made sure I got notes from my friend. McCumber gets that the material is hard so he really breaks it down for you in class, and he does a great job. He may not be the most upbeat lecturer but when you're trying to dumb down the works of some of the most complicated philosophers in an hour, he made sure to remain very straightforward and succinct, no tangents or bs. Take this class for an easy B and with some effort, an A.

This class is an easy B if you do the work, read the cliff notes, and revise your papers. He doesn't grade that easy, despite what these people say. If you aren't the best paper writer, you're screwed in this class. The short answers and one-pagers count for around 15 or 20 percent... the rest is the two essays. North-campusers, this is your class. South-campusers, pick another GE. Philosophy 6 was pretty good... similar topic.

I didn't really think that he was a great professor, his lectures were pretty boring - the material didn't interest me that much, but it was pretty straightforward and he didn't ask much, which is nice for it being a GE class. he graded pretty easily, i thought, he was looking more for just a good-written paper. A couple 1-page papers, one short-answer midterm, one 5-page paper, and one 10-page paper, no final even though URSA listed it as having one, which was nice. final paper was very open-ended, you choose your topic, and i wrote about something we covered in weeks 6-7, so the rest of the quarter i didn't really have to learn any new material. I think it was a good way to take out my philosophy GE req, probably easier than most classes if you don't really care about the material.

Wow, lots of praises. I\355m going to be in the minority here for saying that I didn\355t think McCumber was the best lecturer. I thought his lectures were a bit dry and the ideas a bit too abstract. You probably shouldn\355t take it if you\355re not a north campus major or if you don\355t like philosophy. He grades pretty easy though, although I won\355t mind if he wrote more comments on your papers. I got an A- in the class.

Maybe it's because I don't like philosophy, German or any kind, that I didn't enjoy this class. I came into German 56: Figures who Changed the World, thinking that it would be a history class--WWII and Hitler and stuff like that. No, it was a philosophy class and we had to read works by Kant, Herder, Hegel, Nietzche, Buber, and Heidegger that were sooooo boring. If you like philosophy and you like pondering the meaning of will and reason and life, then maybe you'll enjoy this class. If you can't give a rat's a** and just want a GE credit, do yourself and favor, and pick another course to take. After this class, instead of gaining a "new take" on the meaning of will and reason, I have lost all understanding of those two words and I really don't care. In class, I thought I was checking my watch every 10 minutes to see when it will be over, but in reality, those "10 minutes" were actually every "2 minutes". Yes, I was that bored and it certainly didn't help that lunch was right after. Professor McCumber and his TA, Lucas, may have done the best they could, but the material wasn't very enlightening to begin with. Even though they encouraged you to ask questions in class, sometimes it seemed like the professor wanted to answer the question as quickly as possible and the TA in discussion would make fun of you in a not-so-nice way. The professor also seemed kind of cold in OH and his face had no expression when you told him your ideas. Maybe it is because I'm a south campus major, but this class was definitely my least favorite class, ever. The essays that you got back had little or no comment but the only good thing was that there was no final. There was a total of 2 1-page papers, a 5-page paper, a 10-page paper, and a short-answer midterm. I also thought grading was kind of random because I got A's on papers I put together last minute and A-'s on papers I spent more time on.