[12] : PHILOSOPHY
SYLLABUS AND SAMPLE QUESTIONS
PAPER—II
1. Classical Indian Philosophy
Vedic and Upanisadic world-views : Rta-the cosmic order, the divine and the human realms;
the centrality of the institution of yajna (sacrifice), the concept of rna-duty/obligation; theories of
creation.
Atman-Self (and not-self), jagrat, svapna, susupti and turiya, Brahman, sreyas and preyas
Karma, samsara, moksa
Carvaka : Pratyaksa as the only pramana, critique of anumana and sabda, rejection of non-material
entities and of dharma and moksa
Jainism : Concept of reality-sat, dravya, guna, paryaya, jiva, ajiva, anekantavada, syadvada and
nayavada; theory of knowledge; bondage and liberation
Buddhism : Four noble truths, astangamarga, nirvana, madhyam pratipad pratityasamutpada,
ksanabhangavada, anatmavada
Schools of Buddhism : Vaibhasika, Sautrantika, Yogacara and Madhyamika
Nyaya : Prama and aprama, pramanya and apramanya; pramana : pratyaks nirvikalpaka, savikalpaka,
laukika and alaukika; anumana : anayavyatireka lingaparamarsa, vyapti; classification : vyaptigrahopayas,
hetvabhasa upamana; sabda : Sakti, laksana, akanksa, yogyata, sannidhi and tatparya concept of
God. arguments for the existence of God, adrsta nihsryeasa
Vaisesika : Concepts of padartha, aravya, guna, karma, samanya, samavaya visesa, abhava,
causation : Asatkaryavada, samavayi, asamavayi nimitte karana, paramanuvada, adrsta,
nihsryeas
Samkhya : Satkaryavada, prakrti and its evolutes, arguments for the existence of Prakrti, nature of
purusa, arguments for the existence and plurality of purusa relationship between purusa and prakrti,
kaivalya, atheism
Yoga : Patanjali’s concept of citta and citta-vrtti, eight-fold path of yoga the role of God in yoga
Purva-Mimamsa
Sruti and its importance, atheism of purvamimamsa, classification of srutivakyas, vidhi, nisedha and
arthavada, dharma, bhavana sabdanityavada, jatisaktivada
Kumarila and Prabhakara Schools of mimamsa and their major points of difference, triputi-samvit,
jnatata, abhava and anupalabdh anvitabhidhanavada, abihitanvayavada
Vedanta
Advaita-Rejection of difference : Adhyasa, maya, three grades of satta, jiva jivanmukti, vivartavada
Visistadvaita : Saguna, Brahman, refutation of maya, aprthaksiddh parinamavada, jiva, bhakti and
prapatti
Dvaita-Rejection of nirguna brahman and maya, bheda and saksi, bhakti
2. Modern Indian Thinkers
Vivekananda-Practical vedanta, universal religion
Aurobindo-Evolution, mind and supermind, integral yoga
Iqbal-Self, God, man and superman
Tagore-Religion of man, ideas on education
K. C. Bhattacharyya-Concept of philosophy, subject as freedom, the doctrine of maya
Radhakrishnan-Intellect and intuition, the idealist view of life
J. Krishnamurti-Freedom from the known, analysis of self
Gandhi-Non-violence, satyagraha, swaraj, critique of modern civilization
Ambedkar-Varna and the caste system, Neo-Buddhism
3. Classical Western Philosophy
Early Greek philosophers, Plato and Aristotle
Ionians, Pythagoras, Parmenides, Heraclitus and Democritus
The Sophists and Socrates
Plato-Theory of knowledge, knowledge (episteme) and opinion (doxa), theory of Ideas, the method
of dialectic, soul and God.
Aristotle-Classification of the sciences, the theoretical, the practical and the productive (theoria,
praxis, techne), logic as an organon, critique of Plato’s theory of Ideas, theory of causation, form and
matter, potentiality and actuality, soul and God
Medieval Philosophy
St. Augustine-Problem of evil
St. Anselm-Ontological argument
St. Thomas Aquinas-Faith and reason, essence and existence, the existence of God
4. Modern Western Philosophy
Rationalism
Descartes : Conception of method and the need for method in philosophy, clarity and distinctness
as the criterion of truth, doubt and methodological scepticism, the cogito-intuition or inference? innate
ideas, the ‘real’ distinction between mind and matter, role of God, proofs for the existence of God,
mind-body interactionalism
Spinoza : Substance, Attribute and Mode, the concept of ‘God or Nature’, the mind-body problem,
pantheism, three orders of knowing
Leibniz : Monadology, truths of reason and truths of fact, innaleness of all ideas, proofs for the
existence of God, principles of non-contradiction, sufficient reason and identity of indiscernibles, the
doctrine of pre-established harmony, problem of freedom and philosophy
Empiricism
Locke : Ideas and their classification, refutation of innate ideas, theory of knowledge, three grades
of knowledge, theory of substance, distinction between primary and secondary qualities
Berkeley : Rejection of the distinction between primary and secondary qualities, immaterialism,
critique of abstract ideas, esse est percipi, the problem of solipsism; God and self
Hume : Impressions and ideas, knowledge concerning relations of ideas and knowledge concerning
matters of fact, induction and causality, the external world and the self, personal identity, rejection
of metaphysics, scepticism, reason and the passions
Critical Philosophy and After
Kant : The critical philosophy, classification of judgements, possibility of synthetic a priori judgements,
the Copernican revolution, forms of sensibility, categories of understanding, the metaphysical and the
transcendental deduction of the categories, phenomenon and noumenon, the Ideas of Reason-soul,
God and world as a whole, freedom and immortality, rejection of specualative metaphysics
Hegel : The conception of Geist (spirit), the dialectical method, concepts of being, non-being and
becoming, absolute idealism
Nietzsche : Critique of western culture, will to power
Moore : Refutation of idealism, defence of commonsense, philosophy and analysis
Russell : Refutation of idealism, logic as the essence of philosophy, logical atomism
Wittgenstein : language and reality, facts and objects, names and propositions, the picture theory,
phiolosophy and language, meaning and use, forms of life
Husserl : The Husserlian method, intentionality
Heidegger : Being and nothingness, man as being-in-the-world, critique of technological civilization
Logical Positivism : The verifiability theory of meaning, the verification principle, rejection of metaphysics,
unity of science
C. S. Peirce and William James : Pragmatic theories of meaning and truth
G. Ryle : Systematically misleading expressions, category mistake, concept of mind, critique of
Cartesian dualism
PAPER—III (A)
(CORE GROUP)
Unit—I
Vy vah rika and P ran rthika Satt
Nitya and anitya Dravy
K ranat
k sa, Dik and K la
S m nya and Sambantha
Cit, Acit and tman
Unit—II
Appearance and reality
Being and becoming
Causality, Space and Time
Matter, Mind and Self
Substance and Univesals
The problem of personal identity
Unit—III
Pram
Kinds of Pram nas
Khy tiv da
Pr m nyav da
Anvit bhidh nav da and Abhihit nvayav da
Sabdagraha
Unit—IV
Definition of knowledge
Ways of knowing
Theories of error
Theories of truth
Belief and scepticism
Problem of induction
Unit—V
Concept of Pratyaksa in Ny ya
Concept of Pratyaksa in Buddhism
Concept of Pratyaksa in S mkara Ved nta
Nature and kinds of Anum na
Definition and Nature of Vy pti
Hetv bh sas
Unit-VI
Rna and Rta
Purus rthas, Svadharma
Varnadharma and sramadharma
Nisk makarma and Lokasangraha
Panc sila and Triratnas
Brahmavih ras
Unit—VII
Good, right, justice
Duty and obligation
Cardinal virtues
Eudaemonism
Freedom and responsibility
crime and punishment
Unit—VIII
Ethical cognitivism and non-cognitivism
Ethical realism and intuitionism
Kant’s moral theory
Kinds of utilitarianism
Human rights and social disparities
Ferminism
Unit—IX
Truth and validity
Nature of propositions
Categorical syllogism
Laws of thought
Classification of propositions
Square of opposition
Unit—X
Truth-functions and propositional logic
Quantification and rules of quantification
decision procedures
Proving validity
Argument and argument-form
Axiomatic system, consistency, completeness
PAPER—III (B)
(ELECTIVE / OPTIONAL)
Elective—I
(Candidates will be expected to be familiar with the main tenets and practices of the following groups
of religions : (1) Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism; (2) Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Christianity
and Islam; (3) tribal religions of India)
Possibility and need of comparative religion, commonality and differences among religions, the nature
of inter-religious dialogue and understanding, religious experience, modes of understanding the divine,
the theory of liberation, the means for attaining liberation, the God-man relation in religions, worldviews
(Weltanschaunngen) in religions, immortality, the doctrine of incarnation and prophethood,
religions hermeneutics, religion and moral social values, religion and secular society
Elective—II
General :
The linguistic turn and the conception of philosophy
Problems :
Semantics : Frege’s distinction between sense and reference, concepts and objects, related
problems and their proposed solutions : (a) identity, (b) negative existentials, (c) indirect speech,
(d) propositional attitudes, the meaning and role of singular terms : (a) Proper names, (b)
definite descriptions, (c) demonstratives and other indexicals; the relation between meaning and
truth, holistic and atomistic approach to meaning, what is a theory of meaning ?
Pragmatics : Meaning and use; speech acts
[The above problem areas require candidate’s familiarity with the works of Frege, Russell, Wittgenstein,
Austin, Quine, Strawson. Davidson, Dummett and Searle.]
Elective—III
[The purpose here is to assess the candidate’s acquaintence with the central concepts in phenomenology
and hermeneutics]
Phenomenology as an approach to the understanding of the human condition, consciousness and
intentionality, phenomenology and solipsism, the life-world (Lebenswelt), interpretation, understanding
and the human sciences, the idea of the text, conflict of interpretation and the possibilities of agreement,
culture, situatedness and interpretation
Elective—IV
[This covers vendata philosophy with special reference to five main acharyas viz. Sankara, Ramanuja,
Madhava, Nimbarka and Vallabha, The purpose is to test the candidare’s acquaintence with vedanta
philosophy in its rich and divergent forms]
Sources, general features, similarities and differences, Brahman : Definition and interpretations, distinction
between saguna and nirguna and its relevance in the formation of different schools of vedanta, m y
: Its nature, agruments for and against m y tman : Its nature, relation between atm n and Brahman;
jiva; interpretation of m h v kyas, e.g. tat tvam asi, moksa : Nature and types, marga or s dhan ,
roles played by j na, karma and bhakti, different conceptions of bhakti, theories of causation,
Brahman as the cause different conceptions of bhakti, theories of causation, Brahman as the cause
of the world : Different interpretations, pram , pram nas, special role played by sabda pram na and
intuition (saksatkara/aparoksanubhuti), theories of khy tis
Elective—V
[The intention here is to explore the availability of Gandhian ideas in the central debates in philosophy]
Conceptions of knowledge, truth and love and their relationship, language, understanding and culture,
engagement with tradition, self, world and God. woman, sexuality and brahmacharya, moral foundations
of good life : Dharma. swaraj, satyagraha and ahimsa, community and fellowship; the good society :
statelessness, trusteeship, sarvodaya, panchayati raj, religion, tapasya, service, means-end relationship,
Gandhi and the Gandhians : break, continuity and innovation
SAMPLE QUESTIONS
PAPER—II
1. Which of the following pairs is acceptable to the Carvaka ?
(A) Pratyaksa and Anumana
(B) Air and Water
(C) Fire and Ether
(D) Sabda and Anumna
2. The concept of manahparyaya pertains to
(A) Jain Metaphysics
(B) Jain Epistemology
(C) Buddhist Metaphysics
(D) Yoga Metaphysics
3. Identify the coherent combination
(A) atmavada madhyamapratipad, pratityasamutpada
(B) anatmavada, nityavada, madhyamapratipad
(C) madhyamapratipad, anatmavada, ksanikavada
(D) madhyamapratipad, nityavada, ksanikavada
SYLLABUS AND SAMPLE QUESTIONS
PAPER—II
1. Classical Indian Philosophy
Vedic and Upanisadic world-views : Rta-the cosmic order, the divine and the human realms;
the centrality of the institution of yajna (sacrifice), the concept of rna-duty/obligation; theories of
creation.
Atman-Self (and not-self), jagrat, svapna, susupti and turiya, Brahman, sreyas and preyas
Karma, samsara, moksa
Carvaka : Pratyaksa as the only pramana, critique of anumana and sabda, rejection of non-material
entities and of dharma and moksa
Jainism : Concept of reality-sat, dravya, guna, paryaya, jiva, ajiva, anekantavada, syadvada and
nayavada; theory of knowledge; bondage and liberation
Buddhism : Four noble truths, astangamarga, nirvana, madhyam pratipad pratityasamutpada,
ksanabhangavada, anatmavada
Schools of Buddhism : Vaibhasika, Sautrantika, Yogacara and Madhyamika
Nyaya : Prama and aprama, pramanya and apramanya; pramana : pratyaks nirvikalpaka, savikalpaka,
laukika and alaukika; anumana : anayavyatireka lingaparamarsa, vyapti; classification : vyaptigrahopayas,
hetvabhasa upamana; sabda : Sakti, laksana, akanksa, yogyata, sannidhi and tatparya concept of
God. arguments for the existence of God, adrsta nihsryeasa
Vaisesika : Concepts of padartha, aravya, guna, karma, samanya, samavaya visesa, abhava,
causation : Asatkaryavada, samavayi, asamavayi nimitte karana, paramanuvada, adrsta,
nihsryeas
Samkhya : Satkaryavada, prakrti and its evolutes, arguments for the existence of Prakrti, nature of
purusa, arguments for the existence and plurality of purusa relationship between purusa and prakrti,
kaivalya, atheism
Yoga : Patanjali’s concept of citta and citta-vrtti, eight-fold path of yoga the role of God in yoga
Purva-Mimamsa
Sruti and its importance, atheism of purvamimamsa, classification of srutivakyas, vidhi, nisedha and
arthavada, dharma, bhavana sabdanityavada, jatisaktivada
Kumarila and Prabhakara Schools of mimamsa and their major points of difference, triputi-samvit,
jnatata, abhava and anupalabdh anvitabhidhanavada, abihitanvayavada
Vedanta
Advaita-Rejection of difference : Adhyasa, maya, three grades of satta, jiva jivanmukti, vivartavada
Visistadvaita : Saguna, Brahman, refutation of maya, aprthaksiddh parinamavada, jiva, bhakti and
prapatti
Dvaita-Rejection of nirguna brahman and maya, bheda and saksi, bhakti
2. Modern Indian Thinkers
Vivekananda-Practical vedanta, universal religion
Aurobindo-Evolution, mind and supermind, integral yoga
Iqbal-Self, God, man and superman
Tagore-Religion of man, ideas on education
K. C. Bhattacharyya-Concept of philosophy, subject as freedom, the doctrine of maya
Radhakrishnan-Intellect and intuition, the idealist view of life
J. Krishnamurti-Freedom from the known, analysis of self
Gandhi-Non-violence, satyagraha, swaraj, critique of modern civilization
Ambedkar-Varna and the caste system, Neo-Buddhism
3. Classical Western Philosophy
Early Greek philosophers, Plato and Aristotle
Ionians, Pythagoras, Parmenides, Heraclitus and Democritus
The Sophists and Socrates
Plato-Theory of knowledge, knowledge (episteme) and opinion (doxa), theory of Ideas, the method
of dialectic, soul and God.
Aristotle-Classification of the sciences, the theoretical, the practical and the productive (theoria,
praxis, techne), logic as an organon, critique of Plato’s theory of Ideas, theory of causation, form and
matter, potentiality and actuality, soul and God
Medieval Philosophy
St. Augustine-Problem of evil
St. Anselm-Ontological argument
St. Thomas Aquinas-Faith and reason, essence and existence, the existence of God
4. Modern Western Philosophy
Rationalism
Descartes : Conception of method and the need for method in philosophy, clarity and distinctness
as the criterion of truth, doubt and methodological scepticism, the cogito-intuition or inference? innate
ideas, the ‘real’ distinction between mind and matter, role of God, proofs for the existence of God,
mind-body interactionalism
Spinoza : Substance, Attribute and Mode, the concept of ‘God or Nature’, the mind-body problem,
pantheism, three orders of knowing
Leibniz : Monadology, truths of reason and truths of fact, innaleness of all ideas, proofs for the
existence of God, principles of non-contradiction, sufficient reason and identity of indiscernibles, the
doctrine of pre-established harmony, problem of freedom and philosophy
Empiricism
Locke : Ideas and their classification, refutation of innate ideas, theory of knowledge, three grades
of knowledge, theory of substance, distinction between primary and secondary qualities
Berkeley : Rejection of the distinction between primary and secondary qualities, immaterialism,
critique of abstract ideas, esse est percipi, the problem of solipsism; God and self
Hume : Impressions and ideas, knowledge concerning relations of ideas and knowledge concerning
matters of fact, induction and causality, the external world and the self, personal identity, rejection
of metaphysics, scepticism, reason and the passions
Critical Philosophy and After
Kant : The critical philosophy, classification of judgements, possibility of synthetic a priori judgements,
the Copernican revolution, forms of sensibility, categories of understanding, the metaphysical and the
transcendental deduction of the categories, phenomenon and noumenon, the Ideas of Reason-soul,
God and world as a whole, freedom and immortality, rejection of specualative metaphysics
Hegel : The conception of Geist (spirit), the dialectical method, concepts of being, non-being and
becoming, absolute idealism
Nietzsche : Critique of western culture, will to power
Moore : Refutation of idealism, defence of commonsense, philosophy and analysis
Russell : Refutation of idealism, logic as the essence of philosophy, logical atomism
Wittgenstein : language and reality, facts and objects, names and propositions, the picture theory,
phiolosophy and language, meaning and use, forms of life
Husserl : The Husserlian method, intentionality
Heidegger : Being and nothingness, man as being-in-the-world, critique of technological civilization
Logical Positivism : The verifiability theory of meaning, the verification principle, rejection of metaphysics,
unity of science
C. S. Peirce and William James : Pragmatic theories of meaning and truth
G. Ryle : Systematically misleading expressions, category mistake, concept of mind, critique of
Cartesian dualism
PAPER—III (A)
(CORE GROUP)
Unit—I
Vy vah rika and P ran rthika Satt
Nitya and anitya Dravy
K ranat
k sa, Dik and K la
S m nya and Sambantha
Cit, Acit and tman
Unit—II
Appearance and reality
Being and becoming
Causality, Space and Time
Matter, Mind and Self
Substance and Univesals
The problem of personal identity
Unit—III
Pram
Kinds of Pram nas
Khy tiv da
Pr m nyav da
Anvit bhidh nav da and Abhihit nvayav da
Sabdagraha
Unit—IV
Definition of knowledge
Ways of knowing
Theories of error
Theories of truth
Belief and scepticism
Problem of induction
Unit—V
Concept of Pratyaksa in Ny ya
Concept of Pratyaksa in Buddhism
Concept of Pratyaksa in S mkara Ved nta
Nature and kinds of Anum na
Definition and Nature of Vy pti
Hetv bh sas
Unit-VI
Rna and Rta
Purus rthas, Svadharma
Varnadharma and sramadharma
Nisk makarma and Lokasangraha
Panc sila and Triratnas
Brahmavih ras
Unit—VII
Good, right, justice
Duty and obligation
Cardinal virtues
Eudaemonism
Freedom and responsibility
crime and punishment
Unit—VIII
Ethical cognitivism and non-cognitivism
Ethical realism and intuitionism
Kant’s moral theory
Kinds of utilitarianism
Human rights and social disparities
Ferminism
Unit—IX
Truth and validity
Nature of propositions
Categorical syllogism
Laws of thought
Classification of propositions
Square of opposition
Unit—X
Truth-functions and propositional logic
Quantification and rules of quantification
decision procedures
Proving validity
Argument and argument-form
Axiomatic system, consistency, completeness
PAPER—III (B)
(ELECTIVE / OPTIONAL)
Elective—I
(Candidates will be expected to be familiar with the main tenets and practices of the following groups
of religions : (1) Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism; (2) Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Christianity
and Islam; (3) tribal religions of India)
Possibility and need of comparative religion, commonality and differences among religions, the nature
of inter-religious dialogue and understanding, religious experience, modes of understanding the divine,
the theory of liberation, the means for attaining liberation, the God-man relation in religions, worldviews
(Weltanschaunngen) in religions, immortality, the doctrine of incarnation and prophethood,
religions hermeneutics, religion and moral social values, religion and secular society
Elective—II
General :
The linguistic turn and the conception of philosophy
Problems :
Semantics : Frege’s distinction between sense and reference, concepts and objects, related
problems and their proposed solutions : (a) identity, (b) negative existentials, (c) indirect speech,
(d) propositional attitudes, the meaning and role of singular terms : (a) Proper names, (b)
definite descriptions, (c) demonstratives and other indexicals; the relation between meaning and
truth, holistic and atomistic approach to meaning, what is a theory of meaning ?
Pragmatics : Meaning and use; speech acts
[The above problem areas require candidate’s familiarity with the works of Frege, Russell, Wittgenstein,
Austin, Quine, Strawson. Davidson, Dummett and Searle.]
Elective—III
[The purpose here is to assess the candidate’s acquaintence with the central concepts in phenomenology
and hermeneutics]
Phenomenology as an approach to the understanding of the human condition, consciousness and
intentionality, phenomenology and solipsism, the life-world (Lebenswelt), interpretation, understanding
and the human sciences, the idea of the text, conflict of interpretation and the possibilities of agreement,
culture, situatedness and interpretation
Elective—IV
[This covers vendata philosophy with special reference to five main acharyas viz. Sankara, Ramanuja,
Madhava, Nimbarka and Vallabha, The purpose is to test the candidare’s acquaintence with vedanta
philosophy in its rich and divergent forms]
Sources, general features, similarities and differences, Brahman : Definition and interpretations, distinction
between saguna and nirguna and its relevance in the formation of different schools of vedanta, m y
: Its nature, agruments for and against m y tman : Its nature, relation between atm n and Brahman;
jiva; interpretation of m h v kyas, e.g. tat tvam asi, moksa : Nature and types, marga or s dhan ,
roles played by j na, karma and bhakti, different conceptions of bhakti, theories of causation,
Brahman as the cause different conceptions of bhakti, theories of causation, Brahman as the cause
of the world : Different interpretations, pram , pram nas, special role played by sabda pram na and
intuition (saksatkara/aparoksanubhuti), theories of khy tis
Elective—V
[The intention here is to explore the availability of Gandhian ideas in the central debates in philosophy]
Conceptions of knowledge, truth and love and their relationship, language, understanding and culture,
engagement with tradition, self, world and God. woman, sexuality and brahmacharya, moral foundations
of good life : Dharma. swaraj, satyagraha and ahimsa, community and fellowship; the good society :
statelessness, trusteeship, sarvodaya, panchayati raj, religion, tapasya, service, means-end relationship,
Gandhi and the Gandhians : break, continuity and innovation
SAMPLE QUESTIONS
PAPER—II
1. Which of the following pairs is acceptable to the Carvaka ?
(A) Pratyaksa and Anumana
(B) Air and Water
(C) Fire and Ether
(D) Sabda and Anumna
2. The concept of manahparyaya pertains to
(A) Jain Metaphysics
(B) Jain Epistemology
(C) Buddhist Metaphysics
(D) Yoga Metaphysics
3. Identify the coherent combination
(A) atmavada madhyamapratipad, pratityasamutpada
(B) anatmavada, nityavada, madhyamapratipad
(C) madhyamapratipad, anatmavada, ksanikavada
(D) madhyamapratipad, nityavada, ksanikavada
