Paper: IAS Mains Previous Year Paper Philosophy (1983)

Paper-I-Philosophy-1983 (Mains)

SECTION A

1. Write critical notes/answers on any three of the following in not more than 200 words on each:

(a) The Doctrine of Innate Ideas

(b) Must existentialism be necessarily atheistic?

(c) Hume on Causality

(d) The phenomenological Method

2. Discuss critically the realist arguments against subjective idealism.

3. Explain and evaluate Kant’s synthesis of rationales and empiricism.

4. Is metaphysics possible? Discuss with reference to the logical positivist or the linguistic analytical view.

SECTION B

5. Write critical notes, in not more than 200 words each, on any three of the following:

(a) Sabda as a Pramana

(b) Abhava

(c) Satkaryavada

(d) Svatahpramanyavada

6. State and evaluate the Jaina Syadvada.

7. Discuss critically the Samkhya view of the bondage and liberation of the self.

8. “The sentence and the sentence-meaning are the result of joining together smelled units called words and word meanings.” Discuss the above statements.


Paper-II-Philosophy-1983 (Mains)

SECTION A

1. Give arguments in not more than 200 words each, either for or against, any three of the following views:

(a) Philosophy, which was the queen of the science is no longer so; its position has been taken over by mathematics.

(b) Philosophers have so far been interpreting the Universe; our need is to change it

(c) Revolutions need not always by accompanied by mob massacres and murder of ruling classes, or with firing squads they can be silence also.

(d) Marxism is out of date today; to talk of Marxism is reaction.

2. Distinguish clearly between socialism, communism and fascism. Is Gandhism an ideology? How far is it an alternative to communism?

3. How do the directive principles of state policy embodied in the Indian Constitution contribute to the fulfillment of the changing needs of a healthy modem society? Explain clearly.

4. Discuss critically the question whether the growing needs of a scientific and technological society in India conflict with traditional values of Indian society.

SECTION B

5. Analyze any three of the following views and explain in not more than 200 words each) whether they can be accepted:

(a) Religion is morality touched by emotion

(b) Each religion while maintaining its individuality will learn to appreciate the values of the others. There are no favored races or chosen people or exclusive truths.

(c) Mysticism is vague, soft and flabby; not a rigorous discipline of mind but a surrender of metaphysical faculties and living is a sea of emotional experience.

(d) Talking of moksa in the modern context is meaningless because in the traditional sense, it was confined as an ideal, to the higher castes. The Sudras could at best strive for re-birth in a higher caste and could never think of moksain the ultimate sense.

6. Distinguish religious language from the language of science and ordinary language with suitable illustrations. Is it possible to evaluate the ‘truth’ of religious statements?

7. Examine critically with reference to Hinduism and Buddhism, the question whether a belief in God is indispensable to religious faith.

8. Why is religious tolerance necessary for the development of a secular and rational society? How would you reconcile it with the freedom of religious conversion?