UPHESC Assistant Professor Philosophy Syllabus 2026

UPHESC Assistant Professor Philosophy Syllabus

The written exam has two parts: General Knowledge (30 questions, the same for all subjects) and Philosophy (90 questions). Both syllabi below are the official ones of the Uttar Pradesh Education Service Selection Commission, Prayagraj.

Part 1: General Knowledge (30 questions, 90 marks)

Compulsory for all disciplines. Download PDF (0.3 MB)

Unit 1: Current Affairs

• Major events and current affairs: national and international
• Personalities in news
• Sports news
• Current research in the field of science

Unit 2: Teaching and Research Aptitude

• Teaching: nature, objectives, need, methods, evaluation and factors affecting teaching
• Research: meaning and methods
• Data: source, collection and analysis
• Role of UGC in qualitative development in higher education

Unit 3: Information and Communication Technology (ICT)

• ICT: meaning, advantages and disadvantages
• Basics of internet and e-mailing
• General abbreviations and terminology

Unit 4: People and Environment

• People and environment interaction
• Environmental degradation: causes and solutions
• National and international efforts for a better environment
• Environmental control

Unit 5: Indian History and Geography

• Salient features of Indian culture
• Indian National Movement (1857–1950)
• Origin of the universe and the solar system
• Indian geography (general)

Unit 6: Indian Constitution and Economy

• Preamble, Fundamental Rights and Directive Principles
• Indian political system: legislature, executive and judiciary
• Election Commission and Public Service Commission
• Population, poverty, unemployment; planning and development; income tax
• Agriculture, industry, trade; money, currency, banking and capital market

Part 2: Philosophy (subject code 39) – 90 questions, 270 marks

The Philosophy paper is at post-graduate (Master's) level. The complete official syllabus is below. Download Philosophy syllabus PDF (1.5 MB)

Unit 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: Yogacara and Madhyamika , Vaibhasika, Sautrantika.
• Nyaya: Prama and aprama, pramanya and apramanya; parataha pramanyavada, pramana : pratyaksa, nirvikalpaka, savikalpaka, laukika and alaukika; anuman anvayavyatireka, lingaparamarsa, vyapti; Classification: vyaptigrahopayas, hetvabhasa, upamana. Sabda: Sakti, laksana, akanksa, yogyata, sannidhi and tatparya, concept of God, arguments for the existence of God, adrsta, nihsryasa.
• Vaisesika: Concepts of padartha, dravya, guna, karma, samanya, samavaya, visesa, abhava, causation: Asatkaryavada, samavayi asamavayi nimitta karana, paramanuvada adrsta, nihsryasa.
• 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 (evolution), kaivalya, atheism.
• Yoga: Patanjali's concept of citta and citta – vritti, eight – fold path of yoga, the role of God in yoga.
• Purva– Mimamsa : Prama, nature and validity of knowledge and svataha pramanyavada, 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 anupalabdhi, anvitabhidhanavada, abihitanvayavada
• Vedanta: Advaita– Rejection of difference: Adhyasa, maya, three grades of satta, Jiva, Brahman Ishvar vivartavada, Relation between Jiva and Brahman Moksha.
• Visistadvaita: refutation of maya, Nature of Brahman, aprthaksiddhi, parinamavada, Jiva, bhakti and prapatti,

Unit 2: Modern Indian Thinkers

• Vivekananda: Practical Vedanta, Universal Religion.
• Aurobindo: Evolution, Mind and Supermind, integral Yoga.
• Tagore: Religion of Man, Ideas on Education.
• K. C. Bhattacharyya: Concept of Philosophy, four grades of consciousness, 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.
• M.N.Roy: Materialism, New Humanism.
• Ambedkar: Varna and the caste system, and annihilation of caste Neo – Buddhism.

Unit 3: Classical Western Philosophy

• Early Greek Philosophers; 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 for the existing of God.
• St. Thomas Aquinas: Faith and Reason, Essence and Existence, the Existence of God.

Unit 4: Modern Western Philosophy

• 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 Ergo Sum, innate ideas, absolute and relative substance, role of God, proofs for the existence of God, mind – body interactionism.
• Spinoza: Substance, Attribute and Mode, the concept of 'God or Nature', the mind– body problem: parallelism, pantheism, three levels of knowledge.
• Leibniz: Monadology, truths of reason and truths of fact, innateness 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.
• Locke: Ideas and their classification, refutation of innate ideas, theory of knowledge, theory of substance, distinction between primary and secondary qualities.
• Berkeley: Rejection of the distinction between primary and secondary qualities, immaterialism, Rejection 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.
• Kant: The critical philosophy, classification of judgements, possibility of synthetic a priori judgements, the Copernican revolution, forms of sensibility: Space and Time, 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, impossibility of speculative metaphysics, refutation of arguments for the existence of God.
• Hegel: The conception of Geist (spirit), the dialectical method, concepts of being, non – being and becoming, absolute idealism.

Unit 5: Contemporary Western Philosophy

• Moore: Refutation of idealism, defence of commonsense, philosophy and analysis.
• Russell: Knowledge by acquaintance and knowledge by description, Logical Construction and logical atomism.
• Wittgenstein: Language and reality, facts and objects, names and propositions, the picture theory, function of philosophy, meaning and use, Language –game, Private Language.
• Phenomenonlogy of Husserl : The Husserlian method, intentionality.
• Existentialism- Kierkegaard : Truth as subjectivity, three stages of Existence.
• J.P. Sartre: existence proceeds essence, Freedom and responsibility, Humanism.
• Heidegger: Concept of being in the world (Dasein).
• P.F. Strawson: Person, Basic particular, Identification.
• W.V.O. Quine: Two Dogmas of empiricism, radical translation.
• Logical Positivism: The verifiability theory of meaning, elimination of metaphysics, linguistic theory of necessary proposition
• Pragmatism: William James, John Dewey, C. S. Pierce: Theory of Truth.

Unit 6: Logic: Classical Logic

• Truth and Validity
• Nature of Propositions
• Categorical Syllogism
• Laws of thought
• Classification of Propositions
• Square of Opposition
• Venn Diagram for proving validity of arguments
• Symbolic Logic
• Truth table for proving validity and Invalidity of arguments
• Former Proof of argument
• Fallacies

Unit 7: Ethics: Traditional and Applied

• Rna and Rta, Purusarthas
• Ethics of Geeta: Karmayoga Svadharma and Loksangraha, Shtitapranjna.
• Ethics of Gandhi: End and Means, Truth and non-violence, Satyagraha.
• Concept of Good, Right, Justice Duty and Obligation.
• Concept of values
• Hedonism and Utilitarianism
• Intuitionism
• Perfectionism
• Kant's Moral Philosophy
• Crime and Punishment
• Applied Ethic: Business Ethics, Medical Ethics, Media Ethics, Legal Ethics, Environmental Ethics

Unit 8: Socio-Political Philosophy

• Individual Society state and nation.
• Tradition, change and modernity with special reference to Indian social institutions.
• Political Ideals: Justice, Liberty, Equality
• Political Ideologies: Democracy, Marxism, socialism, Communism Sarvodaya.
• Means of political Action: Satyagraha, Revolution, Constructionalism.
• Humanism, Multiculturalism, Feminism.
• Humann Rights: Origin and Development, Universal Human Rights
• Socio-Political Philosophy in Mahabharat and Ramayana
• Socio-Political Philosophy in Indian Philosophical System
• Socio-Political Philosophy of Kautilya
• Socio-Political Philosophy in Indian Constitution

Unit 9: Philosophy of Religion

• World Religions: Hinduism, Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, Sikhism.
• God Proofs for the Existence of God: Ontological, Teleological, Cosmological and Moral Arguments.
• Concept of Immortality of Soul and Rebirth.
• Concept of Liberation: Pathways of Moksha: Jnana, Bhakti, Karma, Dhyana. Dhyana with special reference to Swami Vivekananda, Sri Aurobindo and Paramhans Yoganand.
• Problem of Evil.
• Foundation of Religious Belief: Faith, Revelation and Reason, Mysticism.
• Religious Experience: Verifiability and Falsifiability of Religious Experience, Religious Language: Symbolic, Analogical and Non-cognitive.
• Problems of Religions: Religious Pluralism, Intolerance, Religious Conflicts Religion and Peace: Universal Religion, Secularism, Conflict Resolution, Interfaith Dialogue

Unit 10: Applied Philosophy

• Philosophy of Yoga: Yoga for Social personal and spiritual development : Concept, meaning and historical tradition of Yoga
• Kinds of Yoga: Bhakti Yoga, Jnana Yoga, Karma Yoga, Raj Yoga and Kriya Yoga (Shyama Charan Lahiri and Paramhansa Yogenand)
• Modern Yogis: Swami Vivekanda, Sri Aurobindo, Shyama Charan Lahiri, Paramhansa Yogananda, Shivanand and Maharshi Mahesh Yogi.
• Asana, Pranayam, Mudra Bandh
• Dhyana (Meditation): Vipasana (Buddha), Kriya Yoga Dhyana (Shyama Charan Lahiri and Paramhans Yoganand), Transcendental Meditation (Maharshi Mahesh Yogi)
• Philosophy of Technology: Technology, Dominance, Power and Social Inequality, Democratization of Technology.
• Ethical Implications of Information Technology (IT) and Bio Technology.
• Philosophical counselling: Managing everyday problems.

How to prepare

• Match the official Philosophy syllabus unit by unit with your Master's notes and mark weak units first.
• Solve previous UPHESC/UPESSC Assistant Professor Philosophy papers (Advt 51 re-exam of April 2026 is the most recent).
• Do not leave GK for the end: Teaching and Research Aptitude and ICT are scoring units of the GK paper.
• Practise MCQs under time limits because of negative marking (-1 per wrong answer).

Syllabus PDFs of all 43 subjects are on UPHESC Assistant Professor.