Paper 2 · Philosophy · Code 03

UGC NET Philosophy (03)

Philosophy (subject code 03) is the subject paper (Paper 2) for candidates in this subject. It carries 100 questions for 200 marks (+2 per correct answer, no negative marking), attempted together with Paper 1 in the single 180-minute combined session. The syllabus below is the verified official syllabus, organised unit-wise; chapters and practice questions appear as they are published, and nothing is marked complete before it exists.

100 questions

200 marks · +2 per correct · No negative marking · Paper 2 within the 180-min combined session

10 units · 37 topics

Full syllabus below, with topic summaries

40 practice questions · 37 premium chapters

Easy 10 · Medium 20 · Hard 10 — all original practice; verified PYQs live separately in the PYQ Library

Syllabus

Complete syllabus — all units and topics

Topic summaries are the unit study material already published on NETSaathi. Weightage badges are platform estimates from past-question frequency — they are not NTA guarantees.

Unit 1: Classical Indian: Epistemology and Metaphysics

शास्त्रीय भारतीय: ज्ञानमीमांसा और तत्वमीमांसा · 4 bank questions · 5 premium chapters

Vedic and Upanishadic thought — Rta as cosmic order, the divine and human realms, yajna, theories of creation; Atman and not-self, Jagrat, Svapna, Sushupti, turiya, Brahman.High weightage
Carvaka, Jainism, Buddhism — Carvaka: pratyaksha as the only pramana, critique of anumana and sabda; Jainism: sat, dravya, guna, paryaya, jiva, ajiva, anekantavada, syadvada, nayavada; Buddhism: Four Noble Truths, astangika marga, pratityasamutpada, kshanabhangavada, anatman, and the schools Vaibhashika, Sautrantika, Yogacara, Madhyamika, Tibetan Buddhism.High weightage
Nyaya and Vaisesika — Nyaya: prama and aprama, pramanas (pratyaksha, anumana, upamana, sabda), hetvabhasa, concept of God, pramana-vyavastha vs pramana-samplava; Vaisesika: padartha and its kinds, asatkaryavada, kinds of karana, paramanukaranavada.High weightage
Samkhya and Yoga — Samkhya: satkaryavada, prakrti and its evolutes, existence and plurality of purusha, purusha-prakrti relation, atheism; Yoga: Patanjali’s theory of pramana, citta and citta-vrtti, stages of cittabhumi, role of God in Yoga.Medium
Purva-Mimamsa and Vedanta — Mimamsa: pramanyavada (svatah and paratah), sruti and its importance, classification of sruti-vakyas, dharma, bhavana, sabda-nityavada, Kumarila and Prabhakara schools, theories of error; Vedanta: Advaita, Vishishtadvaita, Dvaita, Dvaitadvaita, Shuddhadvaita.High weightage

Vedic and Upanishadic thought → premium chapter · free preview · ~12 min

Carvaka, Jainism, Buddhism → premium chapter · free preview · ~12 min

Nyaya and Vaisesika → premium chapter · free preview · ~12 min

Samkhya and Yoga → premium chapter · free preview · ~12 min

Purva-Mimamsa and Vedanta → premium chapter · free preview · ~12 min

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Unit 2: Classical Western: Ancient, Medieval, and Modern

शास्त्रीय पाश्चात्य: प्राचीन, मध्यकालीन और आधुनिक · 4 bank questions · 5 premium chapters

Pre-Socratics, Sophists, Socrates — Thales, Anaxagoras, Anaximenes, Ionians, Pythagoras, Parmenides, Heraclitus, Democritus; the Sophists and Socrates.Medium
Plato and Aristotle — Plato: theory of knowledge, knowledge and opinion, theory of Ideas, dialectic, soul and God; Aristotle: classification of sciences, logic as organon, critique of Plato’s Ideas, causation, form and matter, potentiality and actuality, soul and God.High weightage
Medieval philosophy — St. Augustine: problem of evil; St. Anselm: ontological argument; St. Thomas Aquinas: faith and reason, essence and existence, existence of God.Medium
Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz — Descartes: method, doubt, cogito, innate ideas, mind-matter dualism, proofs of God, interactionism; Spinoza: substance, attribute, mode, God or Nature, parallelism, pantheism; Leibniz: monadology, truths of reason and fact, pre-established harmony, freedom.High weightage
Locke, Berkeley, Hume, Kant, Hegel — Locke: ideas, refutation of innate ideas, substance, primary/secondary qualities; Berkeley: immaterialism, esse est percipi, solipsism; Hume: impressions and ideas, induction, causality, self, scepticism; Kant: critical philosophy, synthetic a priori judgements, categories, phenomenon and noumenon; Hegel: Geist, dialectical method, absolute idealism.High weightage

Pre-Socratics, Sophists, Socrates → premium chapter · free preview · ~12 min

Plato and Aristotle → premium chapter · free preview · ~12 min

Medieval philosophy → premium chapter · free preview · ~12 min

Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz → premium chapter · free preview · ~12 min

Locke, Berkeley, Hume, Kant, Hegel → premium chapter · free preview · ~12 min

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Unit 3: Indian Ethics

भारतीय नीतिशास्त्र · 4 bank questions · 3 premium chapters

Purushartha and Dharma — Purusartha, shreyas and preyas, varnashrama, dharma, sadharana dharma, rna and yajna, concept of duty.High weightage
Karma-yoga and allied concepts — Karma-yoga, sthitaprajna, svadharma, lokasamgraha, apurva and adrshta, sadhya-sadhana, itikartavyata, law of karma, rta and satya, yoga-kshema, astanga yoga.High weightage
Jain, Buddhist and Carvaka ethics — Jainism: samvara-nirjara, tri-ratna, panch-vrata; Buddhism: upaya-kaushal, brahma-vihara (maitri, karuna, mudita, upeksha), bodhisattva; Carvaka’s hedonism.Medium

Purushartha and Dharma → premium chapter · free preview · ~12 min

Karma-yoga and allied concepts → premium chapter · free preview · ~12 min

Jain, Buddhist and Carvaka ethics → premium chapter · free preview · ~12 min

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Unit 4: Western Ethics

पाश्चात्य नीतिशास्त्र · 4 bank questions · 4 premium chapters

Concepts and theories of ethics — Good, right, justice, duty, obligation, cardinal virtues, eudaemonism, intuition in teleological and deontological theories.High weightage
Egoism, altruism, relativism — Egoism, altruism, universalism, subjectivism, cultural relativism, supernaturalism, ethical realism and intuitionism.Medium
Kant and utilitarianism — Kant’s moral theory: postulates of morality, good-will, categorical imperative, duty, means and ends, maxims; utilitarianism: principle of utility, sanction and justification, kinds of utilitarianism, Bentham, J. S. Mill, Sidgwick; theories of punishment.High weightage
Ethical cognitivism and non-cognitivism — Emotivism, prescriptivism, descriptivism as forms of ethical non-cognitivism, contrasted with cognitivism.Medium

Concepts and theories of ethics → premium chapter · free preview · ~12 min

Egoism, altruism, relativism → premium chapter · free preview · ~12 min

Kant and utilitarianism → premium chapter · free preview · ~12 min

Ethical cognitivism and non-cognitivism → premium chapter · free preview · ~12 min

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Unit 5: Contemporary Indian Philosophy

समकालीन भारतीय दर्शन · 4 bank questions · 3 premium chapters

Vivekananda, Aurobindo, Iqbal, Tagore — Vivekananda: practical Vedanta, universal religion, religious experience and rituals; Aurobindo: evolution, mind and supermind, integral yoga; Iqbal: self, God, man and superman, intellect and intuition; Tagore: religion of man, ideas on education, nationalism.High weightage
Bhattacharyya, Radhakrishnan, Krishnamurti, Gandhi — K. C. Bhattacharyya: swaraj in ideas, philosophy, subject as freedom, maya; Radhakrishnan: intellect and intuition, idealist view of life, universal religion, Hindu view of life; J. Krishnamurti: thought, freedom from the known, analysis of self, choiceless awareness; Gandhi: truth, non-violence, satyagraha, swaraj, critique of modern civilization.High weightage
Ambedkar, Upadhyaya, Narayana Guru and others — Ambedkar: annihilation of caste, philosophy of Hinduism, neo-Buddhism; Deendayal Upadhyaya: integral humanism, Advaita Vedanta, purushartha; Narayana Guru: spiritual freedom and social equality, one caste, one religion, one God; also Thiruvalluvar (Tirukkural), Jyotiba Phule, M. N. Roy, Maulana Azad, Sant Kabi Bhima Bhoi, Swami Dayanand Saraswati.Medium

Vivekananda, Aurobindo, Iqbal, Tagore → premium chapter · free preview · ~12 min

Bhattacharyya, Radhakrishnan, Krishnamurti, Gandhi → premium chapter · free preview · ~12 min

Ambedkar, Upadhyaya, Narayana Guru and others → premium chapter · free preview · ~12 min

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Unit 6: Recent Western Philosophy

हाल का पाश्चात्य दर्शन · 4 bank questions · 3 premium chapters

Analytic philosophy — Frege: sense and reference; logical positivism: verification theory of meaning, elimination of metaphysics; Moore: refutation of idealism, defence of commonsense; Russell: logical atomism, definite descriptions; Wittgenstein: picture theory, private language, meaning and use, forms of life, On Certainty; Ryle, Ayer, Quine, Grice and Strawson.High weightage
Phenomenology and existentialism — Husserl: phenomenological method, intentionality, reduction, inter-subjectivity; Heidegger: Being (Dasein), being-in-the-world, critique of technological civilization; Kierkegaard: subjectivity as truth, leap of faith; Sartre: freedom, bad faith, humanism; Merleau-Ponty: perception, embodied consciousness.High weightage
Pragmatism and post-modernism — James: pragmatic theories of meaning and truth, varieties of religious experience; Dewey: truth, common faith, education; Nietzsche: critique of enlightenment, will to power, genealogy of morals; Rorty: critique of representationalism, edifying philosophy; Levinas: ethics as first philosophy, philosophy of the other.Medium

Analytic philosophy → premium chapter · free preview · ~12 min

Phenomenology and existentialism → premium chapter · free preview · ~12 min

Pragmatism and post-modernism → premium chapter · free preview · ~12 min

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Unit 7: Social and Political Philosophy: Indian

सामाजिक और राजनीतिक दर्शन: भारतीय · 4 bank questions · 4 premium chapters

Ancient Indian statecraft — Mahabharata: danda-niti, foundations, rajdharma, law and governance, Narada’s questions to King Yudhishthira; Kautilya: sovereignty, seven pillars of statecraft, state, society, administration, economy, law and justice, internal security, welfare, external affairs; Kamandaki: social order and state elements.High weightage
Constitutional morality and secularism — Constitutional morality, secularism and fundamental rights, constitutionalism.Medium
Modern Indian political ideas — Total revolution, terrorism, swadeshi, satyagraha, sarvodaya, social democracy, state socialism, affirmative action, social justice.High weightage
Social institutions and colonialism — Family, marriage, property, education and religion as social institutions; colonialism.Medium

Ancient Indian statecraft → premium chapter · free preview · ~12 min

Constitutional morality and secularism → premium chapter · free preview · ~12 min

Modern Indian political ideas → premium chapter · free preview · ~12 min

Social institutions and colonialism → premium chapter · free preview · ~12 min

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Unit 8: Social and Political Philosophy: Western

सामाजिक और राजनीतिक दर्शन: पाश्चात्य · 4 bank questions · 4 premium chapters

Plato and social contract theory — Plato: ideal state and justice; Locke, Hobbes, Rousseau: social contract theory.High weightage
Liberty and equality — Isaiah Berlin: conceptions of liberty; Bernard Williams: idea of equality.Medium
Liberalism and theories of justice — Rawls: distributive justice; Nozick: justice as entitlement; Dworkin: justice as equality; Amartya Sen: global justice, freedom and capability.High weightage
Marxism, communitarianism, multiculturalism, feminism — Marxism: dialectical materialism, alienation, critique of capitalism, class struggle and classless society; communitarian critique of the liberal self, universalism vs particularism (Taylor, MacIntyre, Sandel); multiculturalism: Taylor’s politics of recognition, Kymlicka’s minority rights; feminism: patriarchy, misogyny, gender; liberal, socialist, radical and eco-feminism.High weightage

Plato and social contract theory → premium chapter · free preview · ~12 min

Liberty and equality → premium chapter · free preview · ~12 min

Liberalism and theories of justice → premium chapter · free preview · ~12 min

Marxism, communitarianism, multiculturalism, feminism → premium chapter · free preview · ~12 min

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Unit 9: Logic

तर्कशास्त्र · 4 bank questions · 3 premium chapters

Propositions and categorical syllogism — Truth and validity, denotation and connotation, nature of propositions, categorical syllogism, laws of thought, classification of propositions, square of opposition.High weightage
Truth-functions and quantification — Truth-functions and propositional logic, quantification and rules of quantification.High weightage
Symbolic logic and decision procedures — Use of symbols, decision procedures: truth tables for testing validity, Venn diagrams, informal and formal fallacies, proving validity, argument and argument-form, axiomatic system, consistency, completeness, deductive vs inductive logic.High weightage

Propositions and categorical syllogism → premium chapter · free preview · ~12 min

Truth-functions and quantification → premium chapter · free preview · ~12 min

Symbolic logic and decision procedures → premium chapter · free preview · ~12 min

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Unit 10: Applied Philosophy

व्यावहारिक दर्शन · 4 bank questions · 3 premium chapters

Applied philosophy and technology — What applied philosophy is; philosophy of technology: technology, dominance, power and social inequalities; democratization of technology; public evaluation of science and technology; ethical implications of information technology and bio-technology.Medium
Environmental and medical ethics — Environmental ethics: nature as means or end, Aldo Leopold’s land ethics, Arne Naess’s deep ecology, Peter Singer’s animal rights; medical ethics: surrogacy, doctor-patient relationship, abortion, euthanasia, female infanticide.High weightage
Professional, media, legal ethics and counselling — Professional ethics: corporate governance and ethical responsibility; media ethics: privacy, cyber space, pornography, representation, marginalization; legal ethics: law and morality, legal obligation, authority and validity of law; philosophical counselling: managing everyday problems.Medium

Applied philosophy and technology → premium chapter · free preview · ~12 min

Environmental and medical ethics → premium chapter · free preview · ~12 min

Professional, media, legal ethics and counselling → premium chapter · free preview · ~12 min

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Study material