Alan Megill is clearly brilliant. The problem is, he's so deep into the world of academia and jargon that he's forgotten how to be an effective lecturer. He completely fails to teach the material listed on his syllabus-- his lectures consist almost entirely of his own philosophizing and disconnected, disorganized rambling. The class has absolutely no structure, and there are NO graded assignments until 12 weeks into the semester-- so you aren't held accountable for the material and have no way to gauge your progress in the class. I actually did well in this class-- and most people who make it past the drop deadline (25% of people drop or withdraw) end up happy with their grade. Megill grades fairly on the term paper and the final-- and his tests are reasonable. The term paper is a good exercise. But overall, there are many other classes you can take at UVA that give you a better survey of 17-18th century Western philosophy, and create less stress.