Syllabus for MA (Philosophy) Entrance Examination

Indian Philosophy (Classical and Contemporary)

CLASSICAL

UNIT I

1. Introduction to Indian Philosophy

2. Common Features of Indian Philosophical Schools

3. The Upanisads: doctrine of the self and critique of ritual

UNIT II

1. Cārvāka: Metaphysics and Epistemology

2. Early Buddhism: Four Noble Truths and Doctrine of Dependent Origination (Pratītyasamutpāda)

3. Jainism: Anekāntavāda and Syādvāda

UNIT III

1. Nyāya-Vaiśeṣika and Mīmāṃsā on the Nature of Knowledge

2. Sāṃkhya: Prakṛti and Puruṣa, Theory of Evolution

3. Asatkāryavāda and Satkāryavāda Debate

UNIT IV

1. Advaita Vedānta of Śaṃkara: Nature of Brahman and Māyā

2. Viśiṣṭādvaita of Rāmānuja: Nature of Brahman and Refutation of Māyā

CONTEMPORARY INDIAN PHILOSOPHY

Gandhi

Ambedkar

Vivekananda
Recommended Readings:

• Chakravarty, Nilima (1992), Indian Philosophy: The Path Finder's and System Builders, New Delhi:
Allied Publishers.

• Chatterjee, S.C. (2008), Nyāya Theory of Knowledge, Delhi, Bharatiya Kala Prakashan.

• Chatterjee, S.C. & D.M. Datta (1984), An Introduction to Indian Philosophy, reprint, University of
Calcutta.

• Dasgupta, S.N. (2004), A History of Indian Philosophy, vol.1, Delhi, Motilal Banarasidass Publishers,
Pvt. Ltd.

• Hiriyana, M: (1951), Outlines of Indian Philosophy, London: Allen & Unwin. • Mohanty, J.N. (1992),
Reason and Tradition in Indian Thought, Oxford, Clarendon Press. • Organ, Troy Wilson. (1964), The
Self in Indian Philosophy, London, Mouton & Co.

• Pandey, Sangam Lal (1983), Pre-Śaṃkara Advaita Philosophy, 2nd edition, Allahabad: Darsan Peeth.

• Radhakrishnan, S. (1929), Indian Philosophy, Volume 1, Muirhead Library of Philosophy, 2nd edition,
London: George Allen and Unwin.

• Radhakrishnan, S. Moore, (1967) CA, A Sourcebook in Indian Philosophy, Princeton.

• Raju, P.T. (1985) Structural Depths of Indian Thought, NY Albany: State University of New York Press.

• Sharma, C.D. (2003) Critical Survey of Indian Philosophy, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass

• Shastri, Haridatta, Bhartiya Darshan Ka Itihas. (Hindi)

• Upadhaya, Baldeva. Bhartiya Darshan (Hindi), Banaras.

Western Philosophy (Modern Western Philosophy, Greek Philosophy Analytic Philosophy and
Continental Philosophy)

MODERN WESTERN PHILOSOPHY

UNIT I: RATIONALISM

1. Descartes: Method of Doubt Mind body Dualism

2. Spinoza: God and Substance

3. Leibnitz: Truth and Reason

UNIT II: EMPIRICISM

1. Locke: Critique of Innate Ideas

Ideas and Qualities
2. Berkeley: Esse est Percipi
Denial of Matter (Immaterialism)
3. Hume: Ideas and Impressions
Causation
UNIT III: 1. Kant: Classification of Propositions
Possibility of synthetic a priori

Recommended Readings:

• Connor, D. J. (1964). A Critical History of Western Philosophy, Macmillan, New York, 1964.

• Moore, Bruder. (2011). Philosophy: The Power of Ideas, New Delhi: Tata MacGraw Hill

• Stegmuller, W (1969). Main Currents in Contemporary German, British and American Philosophy,
Dordrecht, D. Reidel Publishing

• Thomson, Garrett. (1993) An Introduction to Modern Philosophy, California: Wadsworth Publishing.

Greek Philosophy

UNIT-I

1. Pre-Socratic philosophy: a general survey of Pre Socratic philosophy (Text: Aristotle’s metaphysics
book 1)

2. Heraclitus: Doctrine of Flux and Logos

3. Parmenides: Nature of Being

UNIT –II

1. Sophists and Socrates

2. Man is the measure of all things (Protagoras)

3. Virtue is Knowledge (Socrates)

UNIT- III

1.Plato: Justice in state and individual (Text: Republic Books 2-4)

UNIT- IV

1. Aristotle: Nature and change (Text: Physics Bks 1 and 2 )

Recommended Readings:

• Charlton, W.(1936), Aristotle’s Physics Bks 1-2, U.S.A, Clarendon

• Cohen, M.S. Curd, P. & Reeve, C.D.C. (ed)(1995) Readings in Ancient Greek Philosophy, Hackett:
Indianapolis Kirk, G.S. Raven & Schofield (1957) Pre Socratic Philosophy CUP

• Tankha, V. (2012) Ancient Greek Philosophy: Thales to Socrates, India, Pearson

• Vlastos, G. (1969)” Justice and psychic harmony in the Republic” in Journal of Philosophy. Vol.66(16):
pp 505-521
ANALYTIC PHILOSOPHY

UNIT 1 ANALYTIC PHILOSOPHY AN OVERVIEW

1. Appearance and Reality

2. Existence of Matter

3. Nature of Matter Text: Text: RUSSELL, B., (1980) THE Problems of Philosophy, Oxford University
Press. (Indian Reprint, 1984)

UNIT II:

1. Knowledge by Acquaintance and Knowledge by Description Text: RUSSELL, B., (1980) THE
Problems of Philosophy, Oxford University Press. (Indian Reprint, 1984).

UNIT III:

1. Elimination of Metaphysics (Ayer) Text: Ayer, A. J. (1936) Language, Truth and Logic, Penguin.

UNIT-IV

1. A Defense of Common Sense (G. E. Moore)

Text: Ammerman, Robert R., (1965) Classics of Analytic Philosophy, USA: McGraw, Hill, PP 47-67.

Or
Muirhead, J. H. (1925) Contemporary British Philosophy, U. K.: George Allen Unwin.

Recommended Readings: -

• A. Martinich and David Sosa (eds.) (2001) Analytic Philosophy: An Anthology, Black Well,

• Glock, Hans-Johann. (2008) What is Analytic Philosophy.Cambridge, Cambridge University Press

• Stephen P. Schwartz. (2012) A Brief History of Analytical Philosophy: From Russell to Rawls,

• Urmson, J.O. (1978) Philosophical analysis, New York, Oxford University Press

CONTINENTAL PHILOSOPHY

UNIT I: Hegel

Alexandre Kojeve (1980). Introduction to the Reading of Hegel: Lectures on ‘The Phenomenology of
the Spirit’. Ithaca & London: Cornell University Press, pp. 3-30.

UNIT II: Heidegger

 Martin Heidegger. (1977). “The Question Concerning Technology”. in Being and Nothingness, Part3,
Chap.1 Sec IV. Hazel E. Barnes: New York. Pp. 340-51.

UNIT III: Sartre

Jean-Paul Sartre. “Look” in Kim Atkins (ed.)(2005), Self and Subjectivity. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing,
pp. 87-100.

UNIT IV:

Merleau-Ponty Maurice Merleau-Ponty, “What is Phenomenology?” in T. Toadvine & L. Lawlor (eds.).

The Merleau-Ponty Reader, Evanston (Illinois), Northwestern University Press, 2007, pp. 55-68

Recommended Readings:

• Atkins, Kim (ed.), (2005) Self and Subjectivity. Malden: Blackwell Publishers

• Critchley, Simon, (2001) Continental Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford: Oxford
University Press

• Glendinning, Simon, (2006) The Idea of Continental Philosophy, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University
Press.

Ethics
UNIT I

1. Conventional and Reflective Morality

2. Relativism

UNIT II

1. Aristotle: Virtue Ethics

2. Kant: The Categorical Imperative

3. Mill: Utilitarianism

UNIT III

1. Theories of Punishment-Capital Punishment

2. Euthanasia

UNIT IV: INDIAN ETHICS

1. Bhagvadgītā: Niṣkāmakarma

2. Four Puruṣārthas: Dharma, Artha, Kāma, Mokṣa

3. Gandhi’s conception of Ahiṃsā and satya

Recommended Readings:

• Aristotle. (1926). Nichomachean Ethics, Harvard University Press.

• Bilimoria, Purushottama et al. (2007). Indiaa Ethics: Classical Traditions and Contemporary
Challenges, New Delhi: Oxford University Press.

• Frankena Williams. (1988). Ethics, Prantice Hall of India, Pearson; 2nd edition

• Kant, Immanuel. (1953). Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals, Trans. H.J Paton, as The Moral
Law, London: Hutchinson.

• Rachels, J. (1987) The End of Life: Euthanasia and Morality, CUP

• Rachel, J. (2003) The Elements of Moral Philosophy, McGraw- Hill

• Sharma, I.C. (1962) Ethical Philosophies of India, New York, U.S.A. Johnsen Publishing Company

• Warnock Mary. (1962) J.S Mill Utilitarianism, Glasgow: Collins.

APPLIED ETHICS

UNIT-I

1. An Introduction to Moral Philosophy and Applied Ethics.

UNIT-II Value of Human Life

1. Human Rights

2. Punishment

3. Suicide, Female Foeticide

UNIT-III Environmental Ethics

1. Nature as Means or End.

2. Respect for animals and ecology

UNIT-IV Professional Ethics and Public Policy

1. Medical Ethics- Surrogacy, Doctor-patient relation, Euthanasia

2. Media Ethics – Privacy, Ethical Issues in Cyber space

Recommended Readings:

• Dower Nigel, (2007) World Ethics: The New Agenda. Edinburgh University Press: Edinburgh.

• Hammer Rhonda and Kellner Dougles (eds), (2009) Medical and Cultural Studies: Critical approaches,
New York, Peter Lang Publishing
• Holmes Rolston and Andrew Light (eds),(2007) Environmental Ethics: An Anthology. USA, Blackwell

• Jecker, Nancy S. Jonsen Albert R and Robert A Pearlman (eds)(2010) Bioethics: An Introduction to
the History, Method and Practice. New Delhi, Jones and Bartlett

• Motilal Shashi (ed)(2010), Applied Ethics and Human Rights: Conceptual Analysis and Contextual
Applications. London, Anthem Press

• Piet John H, and Prasad Ayodhya (eds),(2000) An Introduction to Applied Ethics. New Delhi, Cosmo
Publications

• Rachel James, (2011) The Elements of Moral Philosophy. Oxford, Oxford University Press:

• Singer Peter,(1986) Applied Ethics Oxford, Oxford University Press

• Yogi, Manasvini. M, Euthanasia: Its Moral Implication, (2007) Delhi, Pratibha Prakashan,

Logic:
UNIT I: Basic Logical Concepts

1. Sentence and Proposition

2. Argument and Inference

3. Truth, Validity and Soundness.

4. Argument and Explanation

5. Deduction and Induction

UNIT II: Logic and Language:

1. What is a word? Definition of a term.

2. Connotation and Denotation of a term and their relationship.

3. Uses of Language: Three Basic functions of Language.

4. Agreement and Disagreement in Belief and Attitude

5. Definition

UNIT III: Aristotelian Logic:

(A)

1. Categorical Propositions & Immediate Inferences

2. Square of Opposition, The Problem of Existential Import

3. Translating Categorical Propositions into Standard form

4. Immediate Inferences: Conversion, Obversion and Contraposition

(B)

5. Mediate Inference: Categorical Syllogism: Mood, Figure

6. Validiting / Invaliditing Categorical Syllogisms through syllogistic rules, Special Theorems &Venn
Diagrams

UNIT – IV:

Informal Fallacies (As given in Copi’s 14th Edition)

UNIT V

TRUTH FUNCTIONAL LOGIC: PROPOSITIONAL AND PREDICATE

LOGIC OF COMPOUND PROPOSITIONS (Sentential):

1. Logical Connectives: And ( •), Or (V) and Not ( ~)

2. Material Conditional ( )≡ ( lanoitidnociB dna )‫ﬤ‬

3. Truth Tables for Logical Connectives

4. Interdefinability of logical connectives

5. Truth functions: Symbols and Translation

6. Statements and statement-forms: Logical status

7. Truth table Method

8. Shorter Truth Tables (Reductio ad absurdum)

UNIT VI

PROVING VALIDITY (PROOF PROCEDURES)

1. Formal Proofs

2. Indirect Proofs

3. Conditional proofs

4. Conjunctional Normal form & Disjunctional Normal Form

5. Truth Trees

UNIT VII: LOGIC OF SINGULAR/ UNIVERSAL PROPOSITIONS (Predicate)

1. Symbolization of Propositions

2. Quantification Rules (19 rules)

3. Proving Validity

4. Proving Invalidity

Recommended Readings:

• Cohen & Nagel. (1968), An Introduction to Logic and Scientific Method, Delhi: Allied
Publishers
• Hurley, Patrick(2007), Introduction to Logic, Wadsworth, Delhi,
• Sen, Madhucchanda(2008), LOGIC, Delhi, Pearson
• Copi. I.M. (2008). Symbolic Logic, India, Pearson,
• Copi. I.M. (2012). Introduction to Logic, 14th Edition, Pearson, India, Hindi translation also
available with Pearson.
• Jeffrey, R.(1967) Formal Logic: Its scope and limits, U.S.A. MaGraw Hill
• Quine, W.V.O.(1965) Methods of Logic, London, Routledge

Socio Political Philosophy

SECTION A: WESTERN

UNIT I

Immanuel Kant: "On Enlightenment" (Towards Perpetual Peace and Other Writings, Yale, 2006)

UNIT II

I. Berlin: "Two Concepts of Liberty" in Four Essays on Liberty, Oxford University Press.

UNIT III

R. Dworkin, “What is Equality?” 'in Sovereign Virtue (2000) Harvard, Harvard University Press

UNIT IV

John Rawls: "Fundamental Ideas" in Justice as Fairness: A Restatement, (2001) (ed.) Erin Kelly, Harvard
University Press, pp 1-38.

SECTION B: INDIAN

UNIT I

Tagore, "Nationalism in the West" Nationalism, Rupa & Co., New Delhi, 2005

UNIT II

Gandhi, Critique of Modern Civilization in (Hind Swaraj, edi. Anthony J. Parel, Cambridge University
Press, 1997, Chapters 6-13th)
UNIT III

M.N. Roy, (2004). “New Political Philosophy” in Radical Humanist: Selected Writings Kolkota,
Premetheus.

UNIT IV

Hamid Dalwai “On Secularism” in Muslim Politics in Secular India, (1968) Bombay, Nachiketa
Publication.

Recommended Readings:

• Berlin, I (1969), " Two Concepts of Liberty", in Four Essays on Liberty, OUP.
• Dalwai, Hamid, (1968). Muslim Politics In Secular India, Bombay, Nachiketa Publications
• Dworkin, R.(2000), "What is Equality?," in Sovereign Virtue, Harvard University Press
• Gandhi, M.K(1938), Hind Swaraj, Ahmadabad, India Navjivan Publishing House
• Rawls, John, (2000) Justice As Fairness- A Restatement, Chapter One, edited by Erin Kelly,
Havard University Press.
• Tagore, Rabindranath, Nationalism, The Macmillan Company, New York, (available in pdf
format).

Contemporary Western Philosophy

UNIT I

Sartre – Existentialism and Humanism

UNIT II

Heidegger – Letter on Humanism

UNIT III

Richard Rorty – Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature (Chapter7-8)

UNIT IV

Thomas Nagel- The Last Word

UNIT V: The Relation of Language with the World

1. Gottlob, Frege, On Sense and Reference, Text : Dummett, (1993) Michael Frege’s Philosophy of
Language, London: Duckworth & https://en.wikisource.org/wiki

2. Bertrand Russell, “On Denoting”, Mind, 1905, pp 479-493.

Recommended Readings:

• Nagel, Thomas, (2001) The Last Word, Oxford, Oxford University Press.

• Rorty, R, (1979) Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature, Princeton: Princeton University Press.
• Sartre, J. P. (1948) Existentialism and Humanism (tr) Philip Manot, London: Mathuen,

• Wargner, edu/ . . . / Heidegger – Letter on Humanism Translation Groth. pdf.

PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION

SECTION A: WESTERN

UNIT I

1. Nature of Philosophy of Religion and its distinction from theology

2. Proofs for the existence of God: Ontological Argument (with reference to St. Anselm, Gaunilon's
Criticism, Descartes version, Kant's and Bertrand Russell's critique) Cosmological Argument (Thomas
Aquinas' version, The Kalam Cosmological Argument, Immanuel Kant and William Craig's Criticism)

3. Religious Experience (Religious Experience as the Root of Religion: William James)

UNIT II

1. Religious Pluralism (Religious Pluralism: John Hick)

2. Cognitivist and Non-cognitivist debate (Cognitivist : Thomas Aquinas and Paul Tillich; Non
cognitivist: Wittgenstein, Antony Flew, Basil Mitchell.

3. Religion and Science (Science Discredits Religion: Richard Dawkins) SECTION B: INDIAN

UNIT-III

1. The Concept of Bhakti 2. The Concept of Dharma (Pūrva-mīmāṃsā)

UNIT-IV

1. The Conceptions of God/Absolute (Śaṃkara's Brahman, Rāmānuja's God as Infinite, Personal and
Good)

2. The Doctrine of Karma and Rebirth (with special reference to the Bhagvadgītā (any translation)

Recommended Readings:-

• Baruch A Brody ed(1974). Reading in Philosophy of Religion, , Part-1, 1.17, , New Jersey PHI
publication, pp 168-186)

• Chad, Meister, (ed.)(2008) Philosophy of Religion Reader, New York, Rutledge,

• Hinnells,J.R.(2005) The Routledge Companion to the study of Religion ,Oxon. Routledge

• Hari Shankar Prasad (2007), The Centrality of Ethics in Buddhism, Delhi, Motilal Banarsidas.