This course material was interesting and allowed me to expand my knowledge about various controversial topics in the world. However I found the exams very unfair and not a good test of our knowledge. There were three exams and they were all essay blue book exams to be completed in 50 minutes. Also TA Gabi was not helpful at all when discussing the material and exam. I found he didn't help me become a better student and just made the material even more confusing.

I enjoyed the content of this class, but not the lectures. Halfway through the semester, I was either skipping class or doing work for other classes while Professor Stangl lectured. She tends to go off on tangents unrelated to the readings, so they don't really help you prep for the exams. There are three exams, and you have to write two essays for each. You get all the potential prompts about a week in advance, which is nice.

If you have a good TA, like I did, you will learn everything you need to know from your discussion section to succeed on the essays. I stopped doing the readings when we started Midterm 2 material and got an A- or A on all three exams. There aren't any other homework assignments in the class, just the readings. Overall, this class is a pretty easy A as long as you go to your discussion (attendance is required anyway) and pay attention there. Stangl is very little help, and if you don't understand any of the readings, just go see your TA. They're more accessible anyway.

Mini essay for exams and no paper assignment. A challenging course to get an A, and the lecture itself could be deviating from the contents of the course where Professor Stangl seems to be more interested to her personal annecdote sharing. TA can be irresponsible, but unfortunately the TA controls your grade completely.

Professor Stangl is a good lecturer and I always found them interesting. The grade consists of a mid-term, final, and two papers, with discussions every week (participation grade). I had Blake as my TA, and he was great. I missed a few lectures and a few discussions and I was okay as long as I did the readings and looked over the slides. For the mid-term and final, they give you a bunch of topics (it was 45-50), and on the actual exam, there's only like 3 random ones or so. Good class to fulfill a gen-ed. Wasn't hard, but definitely took time to read and study #tCFfall25

Rebecca Stangl was a kind person and was clear in her explanations. She was awesome! My TA, on the other hand, made life hard. He graded ridiculously hard, even when you met with him. He was nice, but making the essays cater to his wishes was extremely difficult, even after talking to him about it. He really brought down the enjoyment of the class, so I do not recommend taking class with Blake.

Stangl was an engaging professor and the content was interesting. My TA however.... so brutal with grading for no reason and with no reasoning when asked about it. I took the class as a college scienceish requirement and did not enjoy it that much but I guess it was easier than other courses that count for the requirement.

Professor Stangl is awesome her lecture is very informative and interesting so it’s easy to pay attention, although you really do not need to pay that much attention to do well. I am really only writing this review and giving this class a bad grade to warn everyone to not sign up for TA Gabis discussion. He is by far the worst TA I have ever had here at UVA. This class was originally pretty interesting and I enjoyed going to it but after the first few grades came out I hated it. Gabi is an absurdly hard grader and I do not know anyone who has gotten a higher grade than a B+ on one of his assignments. Not only that but his discussion section each week was chaotic and I got nothing out of it. You are more likely to do better in this class not going to discussion then going at all. Gabi gave such harsh grades, the lowest I’ve ever received at this university, and then would give little to no feedback. He also never responds to emails so good luck getting in touch with him if you need clarification on anything. I’m pretty bummed as this was my first philosophy class at UVA, a subject I used to enjoy, and now I do not plan on ever taking one again.

I do recommend this course but avoid TA Gabi at all costs for any course.

This course was relatively interesting and easy. There wasn't too much reading for a philosophy class (although some of it is dense) and you could definitely get away with skimming it for the final. I think literally 90% of the class didn't ever do the readings and did fine because Professor Stangl will go over the main arguments in lecture. She also posts her slides to Collab which have the arguments laid out, so a lot of people didn't go to lecture either. Lecture wasn't the most riveting, but Professor Stangl was clearly very knowledgeable about bioethics and legal issues in general. As someone who isn't majoring in philosophy or is pre-med, I still found the course material to be very interesting. The workload wasn't overwhelming either: there are three papers that are worth 65% of your grade. The first was only 500 words and the second and third were 1,200-1,500 words. I had Sam as a TA and didn't think he was a tough grader. The only other grades are discussion section (10%) and the final (25%). Professor Stangl released 11 possible essay prompts about a week before the exam, of which four would appear on the final. You could pick three out of the four to answer. The final exam will not be difficult as long as you prepare a few days in advance - I mostly used my lecture notes to reconstruct the main arguments of the readings and added some supplemental details from my own notes and did well.

Prof Stangl & her lectures were pretty interesting (when I went. which was not often). This class seemed like it would be an easy A, but the TAs graded papers harshly and would not help with your drafts. The content itself was for the most part interesting, and while I initially hated discussions, I do feel like they helped me a lot with getting used to philosophical thinking, and now I feel like I could make stronger arguments on certain topics that we studied in class. It felt a bit pointless going to class, but now that I'm trying to prepare for the final, I am very much wishing i both went to class and took notes during the discussion-- definitely do that, and work with your TA as much as possible for the papers (I wish someone had told me that when the semester started).

If you're looking for an easy, pretty interesting philosophy course then this is a great one! Stangl is very sweet and knowledgable about the topic. She assigns readings before each lecture but just reiterates them in the lecture so there is no need to read and attend class, just pick one. The class was all essay based, 3 short papers (1 600 and 2 1000 word essays), and the final was 3 500 word responses. Stangl and the TAs give a lot of suggestions for the paper and as long as you write what they're looking for it's not hard. I didn't like my TA, he reiterated the lecture and expected us to have all of the readings printed out from the week when we are given them in pdf form because he doesn't like computers out in class. As the semester went on he did more small group discussion activities which were kind of a waste of time. It's an interesting class but all the matters is discussion attendance, the papers, and the final so it makes it hard to care about each individual reading or topic. The main topics discussed were abortion, physician assisted suicide, and views on death. Not much memorizing or studying.