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.

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.

Horrible!
He is a wonderful man. He has a nice personality, he tries to help his students, he is smart (as mentioned here) and he loves the subject he's teaching. If that's all you need to know, then yes, take him. But if you need a good GPA (medical, law, masters, tech. etc. in the future) STAY AWAY.
You will have to learn on your own. We got together in study groups and had to look things online. He posted a "study" sheet for the midterm which was a list of words/terms he has used. SOOO HELPFUL! When 1/2 of the class failed that test, he posted a real study sheet for the final. He ONLY included the imagination, the second half of the course, and described everything we needed to know in detail. At the last review session with the TAs, we were told that if we knew that sheet, we would be ok. When I walked into the final, out of 14 questions, the fist 5 or so had NOTHING to do with the imagination but instead covered the same shit people failed on the midterm.
Just... ask anyone who is UNDERGRADUATE and has had him. The positive reviews are from graduates. That's the problem! He is used to teaching upper level seminars or small type lectures where he can go off tangents, etc. He is terrible for lower level and, most of all, he will most likely f*** up your GPA.
SO! IF this is your LAST quarter at UCLA, DO NOT Take or your GPA will drop.

Worst professor/teacher I have ever had. He was the most confused and unclear person I have ever met. Half of his students wouldn’t show up because it wasn’t worth showing up to class. Don’t take a class by him. Save yourself the headache.