Professor
Samuel Cumming
1 of 3
Most Helpful Review
[NOTE: I know it says that I took him for Philo 1, but I actually took him through my GE cluster (Mind over Matter) this year. The GE cluster was not one of the classes available on the drop down menu.] Professor Cumming isn't that bad of a guy... When he's not teaching. He's an absolute horrible lecturer. Goes off on completely random tangents, repeats himself constantly, can't formulate sentences that make sense. On the first day I had him, he was literally in the middle of explaining the mind-body problem when he suddenly remembers something and goes "Oh, by the way..." and then starts talking about how he doesn't put words on his PowerPoint (He really doesn't, it's all pictures. It's the worst - what kind of philosophy professor doesn't put words on the slides? It's PHILOSOPHY.). Then he launched into an entirely different discussion which consisted of his habits and how he does certain things, blah blah blah. He never finished his thought about the mind-body problem... The whole class was so confused by the end of lecture. I doubt we learned anything at all. It was terrible. Avoid him if you can. Again, nice guy. Awful teacher.
[NOTE: I know it says that I took him for Philo 1, but I actually took him through my GE cluster (Mind over Matter) this year. The GE cluster was not one of the classes available on the drop down menu.] Professor Cumming isn't that bad of a guy... When he's not teaching. He's an absolute horrible lecturer. Goes off on completely random tangents, repeats himself constantly, can't formulate sentences that make sense. On the first day I had him, he was literally in the middle of explaining the mind-body problem when he suddenly remembers something and goes "Oh, by the way..." and then starts talking about how he doesn't put words on his PowerPoint (He really doesn't, it's all pictures. It's the worst - what kind of philosophy professor doesn't put words on the slides? It's PHILOSOPHY.). Then he launched into an entirely different discussion which consisted of his habits and how he does certain things, blah blah blah. He never finished his thought about the mind-body problem... The whole class was so confused by the end of lecture. I doubt we learned anything at all. It was terrible. Avoid him if you can. Again, nice guy. Awful teacher.
Most Helpful Review
The evaluation for Phil 7 below is true. This should have been a fun introductory class and instead, he ruined more than 1/2 of the class' GPAs. I worked so hard for this class, attended lectures, never missed a discussion section, saw the TA, etc., and I still didn't get an A. I'm now going to have to work my butt off like crazy to get my GPA back to where it was before this class (let me just say how STUPID it looks when all I have is A, A- and then this grade!) Cumming saw that we were all struggling immensely and that people practically failed the midterm. Although the final was "sort of" ok, the guy would NOT budge and would not allow for a curve. In reality, I probably have one of the higher grades in class but because he wouldn't allow the TAs to lower the grade scale, it was impossible to get an A. Bottom line, if you need this class see if you can find another teacher. It's a great subject but by the end of the course, I can't tell you how many people were turned off from philosophy and hated anything having to do with it.
The evaluation for Phil 7 below is true. This should have been a fun introductory class and instead, he ruined more than 1/2 of the class' GPAs. I worked so hard for this class, attended lectures, never missed a discussion section, saw the TA, etc., and I still didn't get an A. I'm now going to have to work my butt off like crazy to get my GPA back to where it was before this class (let me just say how STUPID it looks when all I have is A, A- and then this grade!) Cumming saw that we were all struggling immensely and that people practically failed the midterm. Although the final was "sort of" ok, the guy would NOT budge and would not allow for a curve. In reality, I probably have one of the higher grades in class but because he wouldn't allow the TAs to lower the grade scale, it was impossible to get an A. Bottom line, if you need this class see if you can find another teacher. It's a great subject but by the end of the course, I can't tell you how many people were turned off from philosophy and hated anything having to do with it.
AD
Most Helpful Review
Winter 2026 - TLDR: GREAT class from Sam, either as a GE or minor/major class; pretty easy A. He knows it's an intro class / lower div and starts at the most basic levels of understanding to keep everyone on the same page. The concepts you learn about are also pretty interesting (I hope you find at least one that sparks a little something). While lecture attendance is not required, I'd recommend going because he basically tells you what you need to know (and I'd rather listen to explanations than parse through a relatively denser text for the same understanding) based on his note outlines (i.e. the class readings). Simply reading and understanding the outlines might be enough, but going to class tells you the exact examples and sort of phrasing/explanation that he wants for the exams. Examples are often his primary way to explain concepts––he doesn't really care about particular names of theories, for example––because he wants students to pick up on the ideas behind some philosophy of language, even some that are super rudimentary. For example, if someone asks you where the nearest gas station is, you'd respond with something like "down the street" or "around the corner"; you obviously don't need to specify that it's open, it has certain kinds of gas available, the price, etc. because that's so much extra stuff that the person asking doesn't (necessarily) need you to tell them (this is called R Principle if you wanted to know). The examples Sam uses to explain concepts like this are what will help you discern what you need to know for the exams. Exams, btw, are super short if you're prepared (final/midterm could be 20 minutes if you wanted). Practice questions are available and helpful; I think studying by talking through concepts / examples with your friends actually works great. There's an individual project premised on researching a single word (or phrase), which is initiated by your own research methods (e.g. make your own survey, look at ngrams, interview your friends). While only worth 10%, I found I was more invested in this than anything else so I put a little extra time towards it. Lastly, if you can get Seungtaek Lee as your T.A., do it - he's really nice and helpful, especially for the project.
Winter 2026 - TLDR: GREAT class from Sam, either as a GE or minor/major class; pretty easy A. He knows it's an intro class / lower div and starts at the most basic levels of understanding to keep everyone on the same page. The concepts you learn about are also pretty interesting (I hope you find at least one that sparks a little something). While lecture attendance is not required, I'd recommend going because he basically tells you what you need to know (and I'd rather listen to explanations than parse through a relatively denser text for the same understanding) based on his note outlines (i.e. the class readings). Simply reading and understanding the outlines might be enough, but going to class tells you the exact examples and sort of phrasing/explanation that he wants for the exams. Examples are often his primary way to explain concepts––he doesn't really care about particular names of theories, for example––because he wants students to pick up on the ideas behind some philosophy of language, even some that are super rudimentary. For example, if someone asks you where the nearest gas station is, you'd respond with something like "down the street" or "around the corner"; you obviously don't need to specify that it's open, it has certain kinds of gas available, the price, etc. because that's so much extra stuff that the person asking doesn't (necessarily) need you to tell them (this is called R Principle if you wanted to know). The examples Sam uses to explain concepts like this are what will help you discern what you need to know for the exams. Exams, btw, are super short if you're prepared (final/midterm could be 20 minutes if you wanted). Practice questions are available and helpful; I think studying by talking through concepts / examples with your friends actually works great. There's an individual project premised on researching a single word (or phrase), which is initiated by your own research methods (e.g. make your own survey, look at ngrams, interview your friends). While only worth 10%, I found I was more invested in this than anything else so I put a little extra time towards it. Lastly, if you can get Seungtaek Lee as your T.A., do it - he's really nice and helpful, especially for the project.
AD
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2016 - This was the worst professor I had at UCLA. If you can find out I wrote this about you I am sorry. You are a very smart person, but you are just not a good teacher. There is a big difference between knowledge, and knowledge of teaching. Smart man, just bad at teaching. Blabbers non-stop about and goes on gambits. That's not a cool thing (I guess most philosophy professors think it is or it shows how ingenious they are). Just structure your lecture have some structure to your class. Think it out beforehand and not just arrive and start talking nonsense. Sorry for the harsh criticism but as a transfer Philosophy major and this being my first class I think I was traumatized for a long time, not really but basically until my next class which was really well structured. Don't take him unless you plan on having him take pictures of you for attendance and talk in his Australian accent about nonsense that has almost nothing to do with your papers but he somehow expects you to know what he is thinking.
Fall 2016 - This was the worst professor I had at UCLA. If you can find out I wrote this about you I am sorry. You are a very smart person, but you are just not a good teacher. There is a big difference between knowledge, and knowledge of teaching. Smart man, just bad at teaching. Blabbers non-stop about and goes on gambits. That's not a cool thing (I guess most philosophy professors think it is or it shows how ingenious they are). Just structure your lecture have some structure to your class. Think it out beforehand and not just arrive and start talking nonsense. Sorry for the harsh criticism but as a transfer Philosophy major and this being my first class I think I was traumatized for a long time, not really but basically until my next class which was really well structured. Don't take him unless you plan on having him take pictures of you for attendance and talk in his Australian accent about nonsense that has almost nothing to do with your papers but he somehow expects you to know what he is thinking.
AD
1 of 3
