Toll Free 1800 572 9282 
mailus@wbcsmadeeasy.in
Strategy For Philosophy Optional – For IAS Mains Examination.
Philosophy being one of the easiest optional subjects for UPSC can be prepared in very short time if approached strategically.Continue Reading Strategy For Philosophy Optional – For IAS Mains Examination.
Generally students take it to be something abstract with no practical revelance but Philosophy actually is very speculative and analytical discipline. It is the best optional subject for UPSC because of its short syllabus which remains mostly static.
Strategy to Prepare
Paper I
Paper I deals with Indian Philosophy and Western Philosophy. Here we have to attempt 5 questions out of 8. 2 questions are compulsory which are generally on specific topics. The compulsory question of Indian philosophy is generally on epistemology or it can be a short note. In Western Philosophy the compulsory question is mostly a short note. The first paper is highly scoring because all the questions are predictable. We have to critically examine the questions and give as many comments as possible.
Some commonly asked Indian Philosophy questions
- Refutation of inference given by carvaka Syatvada and Anekantavada in Jainism
- Pratitya Samutpada and Kshan Bhangvada in Early Buddhism
- Shunyavada and Vigyanvada in Later Buddhism
- Purush prakriti and Theory of Evolution from Samkhya
- categories and atomism from Vaisheshika
- Brahma and Maya from Sankara
- Qualified non-dualism and refutation of Mayaism from Ramanuja
Some commonly asked Western Philosophy questions
- Theories of ideas of Plato, substance and form of Aristotle,
- Cogito ergo sum’ of Descartes, substance or pantheism of Spinoza, monadology of Leibnitz
- Esse est percipi of Berkeley, Scepticism of Hume, Synthetic a priori judgement of Kant
- Truth is rational and rational is truth of Hegel, appearance and reality of Bradley
- Radical empiricism of James, Common sense philosophy and refutation of idealism of Moore
- Logical atomism and Theory of Description of Rusell, Elimination of metaphysics and verification theory of Ayer
- Picture theory and language game of Wittgenstein, Category mistake of Ryle Nothingness of Heidegger
- Existence precedes essence and man is condemned to be free of Sartre
Paper II
Paper II has 2 sections and there are also 2 compulsory questions in each sections (one from each section). Philosophy of religion and Socio-political philosophy are the 2 sections of Paper II. Philosophy of religion is very short. There are only 7 topics in the whole syllabus and always 1 question from each topic. If certain specific topics are covoered, philosophy of religion can be covered easily. In the section of socio- political philosophy there are 11 topics given inour syllabus. There are some topics which are invariably asked like Sarvodaya, Gandhism, comparison between Marxism and Gandhism and sort notes are always on political ideals (equality, liberty, sovereignity and justice).
Please subscribe here to get all future updates on this post/page/category/website
