Organization : Indian Institute of Technology Bombay
Department : Humanities and Social Sciences
Exam : PhD Entrance Examination
Subject : Philosophy
Document Type : Previous Year Question Paper
Website : hss.iitb.ac.in/en
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IITB PhD Philosophy Sample Question Paper
Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Bombay PhD Entrance Examination, Autumn-2014 (Philosophy)
Date: 1 July 2014
Duration: 3 hrs
Full marks: 70
Related / Similar Question Paper :
HSS IITB PhD Entrance Exam Sociology & Pschology Question Paper
Instructions
** Section A is compulsoryfor all and carries 22 marks.
** Please answer any three questions from Section B.
** Each question in Section B carries 16 marks.
** Avoid repeating your answer in Section A in relation to questions in Section B.
Section A :
1. Write a critical essay on a philosophical theme that is of interest to you.
Section B :
1. Elaborate the Buddhist theory of pratityasamudpadavada (theory of dependent origination). Show how nairatmyavada (theory of soullessness) is related to pratityasamudpadavada?
2. Give an appraisal of any three Indian theories of error.
3. Critically discuss Swami Vivekananda’s practical Vedanta.
4. Write an essay on Plato’s theory of ideas. What were Aristotle’s criticisms of it?
5. Discuss critically Descartes’s mind-body problem.
6. Discuss and evaluate utilitarian ethics.
7. Write a critical essay on the existentialist notion of being.
8. Discuss critically Wittgenstein’s picture theory of meaning.
9. Elaborate Kuhn’s concept of paradigm and its implication in understanding the progress of science.
10. Explain in detail the linguistic turn in philosophy.
Department of Humanities and Social Sciences
IIT Bombay
PhD Entrance Examination Fall-2013
(Philosophy)
Instructions:
** The question in Section A is compulsory and carries 22 marks.
** Please answer any three questions from Section B.
However, please ensure that the theme of your essay in Section A does not repeat the themes discussed in your choices in this section.
Each question in this section carries 16 marks.
Section A :
1. Write a critical essay on a philosophical theme that is of interest to you.
Section B :
1. Discuss the role of the transcendental categories of understanding in Kant’s epistemology.
2. Elaborate upon Heidegger’s fundamental ontology.
3. Elaborate upon the nature of anumana (inference) as a form of pramana in any one of the Indian philosophical systems.
4. Critically discuss Wittgenstein’s position on the possibility of a private language.
5. Discuss the similarities and the differences in Bentham’s and Mill’s formulation of Utilitarianism as an ethical theory.
6. Is consciousness a brain process? Critically discuss.
7. Critically elaborate the relation between atman and Brahman following Vedanta.
8. Critically evaluate the verification theory as a theory of meaning bringing out its implications for the pursuit of metaphysics.
9. Discuss Karl Popper’s thesis of falsification as opposed to positivist’s interpretation of scientific method.
10. Elaborate on the Aristotelian notion of moral virtue.
Philosophy
1. Write a note on Plato?s theory of knowledge with special emphasis on the doctrine of Forms and the Allegory of the Cave.
2. Critically examine Cartesian position on „cogito ergo sum? with reference to the Method of Doubt.
Write a critical note on Cartesian dualism or the philosophy of Mind-Body interactionism. How is mind related to the body?
3. Write short notes on any two of the following
(a) Distinction between phenomena and noumena in the philosophy of Immanuel Kant (b )Phenomenology of Edmund Husserl ( c) Existentialism of Jean Paul Sartre .
I. Answer the following:
1. If “No flowers in the park are fragrant flowers” is false, write and find out the truth value of the other propositions.
2. Check the validity of the following:
A. Some popular policies are not welfare-centered policies because All growth-oriented policies are welfare-centered policies and Some popular policies are not growth-oriented policies.
B. All transgenic animals are manmade and hence they are patentable.