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PHIL 3720 Contemporary Ethics
Last taught: Spring 2025

Ratings

7 ratings
Instructor
Enjoyability
Difficulty
Recommend

Weekly Breakdown

hrs/wk
Reading
Writing
Groupwork
Other

Grade Distribution

Average GPA
Students Measured

7 Reviews

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Fall 2013
3.7
Average

Professor Stangl is very charismatic and does a good job of making the material more approachable in class. A lot of reading, but not entirely necessary if you attend lecture.

Instructor 5.0
Enjoyability 3.0
Recommend 3.0
Difficulty 3.0
Hours/Week 8.0
Fall 2015
5.0
Average

Professor Stangl is a riot. If not this class, definitely take another one with her. She keeps the class entertaining and knows her shit, and lets the class debate just the right amount (if it gets too meta she reigns it in and doesn't let us get too far off topic/take up all the time on one thing). As per any upper-level philosophy course, the readings are effectively optional as the teachers just tell you what they said in class, but I read it and the stuff she assigns is not too dense and is always interesting. 2 mid-length papers and an essay based final, which comes from a bank of possible questions.

Instructor 5.0
Enjoyability 5.0
Recommend 5.0
Difficulty 2.0
Hours/Week 3.0
Fall 2015
4.7
Average

Prof Stangl is the reason why you should take this course! This has been one of my favorite philosophy classes that I've taken at UVA. The material is intriguing and very thought provoking. We often held engaging and animated class discussions about moral dilemmas and the like. I would highly recommend taking this course, it's not a very challenging upper level philosophy course if you're either a philosophy major or have taken a few philosophy classes in the past.

Instructor 5.0
Enjoyability 4.0
Recommend 5.0
Difficulty 2.0
Hours/Week 0.0
Fall 2016
5.0
Average

TAKE THIS COURSE!!! You will seriously not regret it! Professor Stangl is one of the best professors I've ever had. She's super engaging and really knows her philosophy. I struggled a bit with the readings since I'm not a philosophy major, but the way the course is structured, that doesn't matter as much. That honestly took a huge weight off my shoulders because at the beginning of the semester I was scared I would do poorly because the readings were over my head. Our grades consisted of 3 essays and participation. I ended up with an A and will forever be shocked by that because I'm not the best philosophical writer. Professor Stangl is open to helping her students with their essays, and she helped me out immensely. She's also an extremely fair grader, whose grading showed how much work I put into my essays.

Instructor 5.0
Enjoyability 5.0
Recommend 5.0
Difficulty 4.0
Hours/Week 5.0
Fall 2017
4.3
Average

Stangl is a phenomenal lecturer. She's super engaging and makes topics like meta-ethics seem engaging and of consequence (pun intended). Definitely try to stop by her office hours and pick her brain.

Instructor 5.0
Enjoyability 4.0
Recommend 4.0
Difficulty 4.0
Hours/Week 6.0
Spring 2021
5.0
Average

Stangl is AWESOME!! Super engaging professor in discussions and in lectures she makes the reading material very easy to understand. The class was virtual this semester, and we had to read 1-2 readings per week and watch 1-2 recorded lectures (all about 25-30 minutes) as well as attend discussion once a week. Overall, it did not take up that much time in my week and I actually found the material really interesting, moreso because of her lectures. We had three 5-page papers throughout the semester and I found her grading very fair! I would also recommend meeting with her before the paper is due, as she had very helpful suggestions for me during these meetings/office hours. Highly recommend!

Instructor 5.0
Enjoyability 5.0
Recommend 5.0
Difficulty 2.0
Hours/Week 0.0
Fall 2022
4.3
Average

Professor Stangl was awesome. She always had interesting philosophical cases to propose to the class. And she just let the discussion flow, so nothing we talked about was boring. Sometimes we went on hilarious tangents about current events, eccentric philosophers, or stories. The class itself wasn't super difficult, although the readings are quite dense and require thorough reading to understand. (That means, too, that to be able to participate you need to do a lot of reading.) And the essays were challenging but not impossible. Professor Stangl is pretty lax about deadlines etc., though. If you're interested in philosophy, take this class.

Instructor 4.0
Enjoyability 4.0
Recommend 5.0
Difficulty 3.0
Hours/Week 7.0