UGC NET Philosophy Syllabus 2025: Download PDF Now!

The UGC NET Philosophy Syllabus is released on the official NTA and UGC NET Online website. For candidates who will be appearing for the upcoming UGC NET Exam with Philosophy as their optional elective subject, it is essential to be well versed with the UGC NET Paper 2 Philosophy Syllabus inside out to be able to achieve higher marks in the exam. 

• As per the official UGC NET Syllabus for Philosophy, questions can be asked from both Indian and Western philosophical traditions across diverse historical periods. 
• Key areas include metaphysics, epistemology, logic, ethics, social and political philosophy, philosophy of religion, philosophy of science, and contemporary philosophical analysis. 
• Aspirants need extensive preparation in understanding the philosophical perspectives and arguments put forth by thinkers like Plato, Aristotle, Kant, Hegel, Russell, Ayer, Wittgenstein and more. 
• Mastery over terminology, concepts, theories and ability to apply philosophical thinking is critical to acquire a high score.

The detailed unit-wise breakdown of the UGC NET Philosophy new syllabus (June 2019 onwards) has been discussed in the article below.

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UGC NET Philosophy Syllabus Highlights

Before delving into the details of UGC NET Philosophy Syllabus, let us quickly go through the paper pattern and key points about the exam below –

Check out expert UGC NET Preparation Tips before kickstarting your exam preparation. 

UGC NET Philosophy Syllabus 2025

The UGC NET Philosophy Syllabus for Paper 2 is vast and covers components of both Indian and Western philosophy. The following are the units of UGC NET Philosophy Syllabus 2025 –

• Classical Indian - Epistemology and Metaphysics
• Classical Western - Ancient, Medieval, and Modern
• Indian Ethics
• Western Ethics
• Contemporary Indian Philosophy
• Recent Western Philosophy
• Social and Political Philosophy
• Social and Political Philosophy
• Logic
• Applied Philosophy

Now, let us take a look at the detailed unit-wise UGC NET Philosophy Syllabus below –

Unit 1: Classical Indian - Epistemology and Metaphysics

• Vedic and Upaniṣadic: Ṛta – the cosmic order, the divine and the human realms; the centrality of the institution of yajῆa (sacrifice), theories of creation Ātman – Self ( and not – self ), Jāgrat, Svapna, Susupti and turiya, Brahmaṇ
• Jainism: Concept of reality – sat, dravya, guṇa, paryāya, Jiva, ajiva, anekāntavāda, syādvāda and nayavāda; theory of knowledge
• Buddhism: Four Noble Truths, Āstangika Mārga, Distinction between Brahmiṇic and Śraminic traditions. Pratityasamutpāda, kṣaṇabhahgavāda, anātmavāda. Schools of Buddhism : Vaibhāṣika, Sautrāntika, Yogacāra, Mādhyamika and Tibetan Buddhism
• Nyāya: Pramā and apramā, Theories of pramāṇa: pratyakṣa, anumāna, upamana, śabda. Hetvabhāsa. Concept of God. Debate between Buddhism and Nyāya about Pramāṇa-Vyavasthā and Pramāṇa Samplava. Anyathākhyati
• Vaiśeṣika: Concept of padārtha and its kinds, Asatkāryavāda, Kinds of Kāraṇa: samavāyi, asamavāyi, and nimitta kāraṇa, paramaṇukaraṇavāda
• Sāṃkhya: Satkāryavāda, prakṛti and its evolutes, arguments for the existence of prakṛti, nature of puruṣa, arguments for the existence and plurality of puruṣa, relationship between puruṣa and prakṛti, atheism.
• Yoga: Pataῆjali’s Theory of Pramāṇa, concept of ćitta and ćitta – vṛtti, stages of ćittbhumi, the role of God in Yoga.
• Purva – Mimāṃsā: Pramāṇyavāda: Svatah-pramāṇyavāda and Paratah-pramāṇyavada, Śruti and its importance, classification of śruti-vākyas, vidhi, niṣedha and arthavāda, dharma, bhāvanā, śabda-nityavāda, Jāti, śaktivada; Kumārila and Prabhākara Schools of Mimāṃsa and their major points of difference, triputi – samvit, jῆatatā, abhāva and anupalabdhi, anvitadbhidhanavāda, abhihitanvayavāda, Theories of error: Akhyāti, Viparitakhyāti, atheism.
• Vedānta
• Advaita: Brahmaṇ, relation between Brahmaṇ and Ātman, three grades of sattā, Adhyāsa, māya, Jiva, Vivartavāda, Anirvachniya-khyāti.
• Viśiṣtādvaita: Saguṇa Brahmaṇ, refutation of māya, aprthaksiddhi pariṇāmavāda, Jiva, bhakti and prapatti, Brahma-Pariṇāmavāda, Sat-khyāti.
• Dvaita: Rejection of nirguṇa brahmaṇ and māya, bheda and sāksi, bhakti.
• Dvaitavaita: Concept of Jῆānaswaroop, kinds of inanimate
• Sudhadvaita: Concept of Avikrta-pariṇāmavāda.

Above are the topics of Unit 1 for UGC NET Philosophy Syllabus 2025

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

• Epistemology and Metaphysics
• Pre-Socratic Philosophers: Thales, Anaxagoras, Anaximenies, Ionians, Pythagoras, Parmenides, Heraclitus and Democritus,
• The Sophists and Socrates
• Plato and Aristotle
• St. Augustine: Problem of Evil.
• St. Anselm: Ontological argument.
• St. Thomas Aquinas: Faith and Reason, Essence and Existence, the Existence of God.
• Modern Western Philosophy:
• Descartes: Conception of method , Criteria of truth, doubt and methodological scepticism, cogito ergo sum, innate ideas, Cartesian dualism: mind and matter, proofs for the existence of God, interactionism
• Spinoza: Substance, Attribute and Mode, the concept of ‘God or Nature’, Intellectual love of God, parallelism, pantheism, three orders of knowing.
• Leibnitz: Monadology, truths of reason and fact, innateness of 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
• Locke: Ideas and their classification, refutation of innate ideas, theory of substance, distinction between primary and secondary qualities, theory of knowledge, three grades of knowledge. 
• Berkeley: Rejection of the distinction between primary and secondary qualities, immaterialism, critique 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, 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, rejection of speculative metaphysics. 
• Hegel: The conception of Geist (spirit), the dialectical method, concepts of being, non – being and becoming, absolute idealism, Freedom.

Above are the topics covered in Unit 2 for UGC NET Philosophy Syllabus 2025

Unit 3: Indian Ethics

• Concept of Purusārtha, Śreyas and Preyas
• Varṇāshrama, Dharma, Sādhāraṇa Dharma
• Ṛna and yajῆa, Concept of duty
• Karma-yoga, Sthitprajῆa, Svadharma, Lokasaṃgraha
• Apurva and Adṛṣta
• Sādhya-Sādhana, Itikartavyata
• Law of Karma: ethical implications
• Ṛta and Satya
• Yoga-kśema
• Astānga Yoga
• Jainism: Samvara-nirjarā, Tri-ratṇa, Panch-vrata
• Buddhism: Upāya-Kaushal, Brahma-vihāra: matri, karuṇā, muditā, upeksha, bodhisattva
• Carvaka’s Hedonism

Above are the topics in Unit 3 for UGC NET Philosophy Syllabus 2025

Unit 4: Western Ethics

• Concepts of Good, right, justice, duty, obligation, cardinal virtues, Eudaemonism, Intuition as explained in Teleological and Deontological Theories
• Egoism, Altruism, Universalism
• Subjectivism, Cultural Relativism, Super-naturalism
• Ethical realism and Intuitionism
• Kant’s moral theory: Postulates of morality, Good-will, Categorical Imperative, Duty, Mean and ends, Maxims
• Utilitarianism: principle of utility, problem of sanction and justification of morality, kinds of utilitarianism, Moral theories of Bentham, J. S. Mill, Sidgwick
• Theories of Punishment
• Ethical cognitivism and non-cognitivism: Emotivism, Prescriptivism, Descriptivism

Above are the topics covered in Unit 4 for UGC NET Philosophy Syllabus 2025

Unit 5: Contemporary Indian Philosophy

• Swami Vivekananda: Practical Vedanta, Universal Religion, Religious Experience, Religious Rituals
• Sri Aurobindo: Evolution, mind and supermind, Integral Yoga
• Iqbal: Self, God, man and superman, Intellect and Intuition
• Rabindranath Tagore: Religion of man, ideas on education, Concept of Nationalism
• K. C. Bhattacharyya: Swaraj in ideas, Concept of Philosophy, subject as Freedom, the doctrine of Maya
• Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan: Intellect and intuition, the Idealist view of life, concept of Universal Religion, Hindu view of life
• J. Krishnamurti: Conception of thought, Freedom from the known, analysis of self, Choiceless awareness
• Mahatma Gandhi: Truth, Non-violence, satyagraha, swaraj, critique of modern civilization. 
• Ambedkar: Annihilation of caste, philosophy of Hinduism, Neo-Buddhism
• D.D. Upadhyaya: Integral Humanism, Advaita Vedanta, Purusartha
• Narayana Guru: spiritual freedom and social equality, one caste, one religion, one God. 
• Thiruvalluvarr: Tirukkural
• Jyotiba Phule: Critical understanding of Caste-system
• M.N.Roy: Radical Humanism, Materialism
• Maulana Azad: Humanism

Above are the topics in Unit 5 for UGC NET Philosophy Syllabus 2025

Unit 6: Recent Western Philosophy

• Analytic and Continental Philosophy:
• Frege: Sense and Reference
• Logical Positivism: Verification theory of meaning, Elimination of metaphysics, concept of Philosophy
• Moore: Distinction between Sense and Reference, Refutation of Idealism, Defense of commonsense, Proof of an External World
• Russell: Logical Atomism, Definite Descriptions, Refutation of Idealism
• Wittgenstein: Language and Reality, Facts and objects, names and propositions, the picture theory, critique of private language, meaning and use, forms of life, notion of philosophy, Wittgensteinian Fideism, On Certainty.
• Gilbert Ryle: Systematically misleading expressions, category mistake, concept of mind, critique of Cartesian dualism
• A. J. Ayer: The Problem of Knowledge
• W.V.O. Quine: Two Dogmas of Empiricism
• H.P. Grice and P.F. Strawson: In Defense of a dogma
• Husserl: Phenomenological Method, Philosophy as a rigorous science, Intentionality, Phenomenological Reduction, Inter-subjectivity
• Heidegger: The concept of Being (Dasein), Man as being in the world, critique of technological civilization
• Kierkegaard: Subjectivity as Truth, Leap of faith
• Sartre: Concept of Freedom, Bad-faith, Humanism
• Merleau-Ponty: Perception, Embodied Consciousness
• Pragmatism
• William James: Pragmatic Theories of Meaning and Truth, Varieties of Religious experience 
• John Dewey: Concept of Truth, Common-faith, education
• Postmodernism
• Nietzsche: Critique of Enlightenment, Will to Power, Genealogy of Moral
• Richard Rorty: Critique of representationalism, Against Epistemological method, Edifying Philosophy
• Immanuel Levinas: Ethics as a first philosophy, Philosophy of ‘other’

Above are the topics of Unit 6 for UGC NET Philosophy Syllabus 2025

Unit 7: Social and Political Philosophy: Indian

• Mahabharata: Danda-niti, foundations, Rajdharma, Law and Governance, Narada’s Questions to King Yudhisthir
• Kautilya: Sovereignty, Seven Pillars of State-craft, State, Society, Social-life, State administration, State economy, law and justice, internal security, welfare and external affairs 
• Kamandaki: Social order and State elements
• Constitutionalism, Total revolution, terrorism, Swadeshi, Satyagrah, Sarvodaya, Social Democracy, State Socialism, Affirmative Action, Social Justice
• Social Institutions: Family, Marriage, property, education and religion

Above are the topics of Unit 7 for UGC NET Philosophy Syllabus 2025

Unit 8: Social and Political Philosophy: Western

• Plato: Ideal State and Justice
• Locke, Hobbes, Rousseau: Social Contract Theory
• Isaiah Berlin: Conceptions of Liberty
• Bernard Williams: Idea of Equality
• Liberalism: Rawls; Distributive justice, Nozick; Justice as Entitlement, Dworkin; Justice as equality; Amartya Sen: Global Justice, Freedom and Capability
• Marxism: Dialectical Materialism, Alienation, Critique of Capitalism, Doctrine of Class Struggle and Classless Society
• Communitarianism: Communitarian critique of liberal self, Universalism Vs. Particularism, Theory of Charles Taylor, MacIntyre, Michael Sandel
• Multiculturalism: Charles Taylor; Politics of recognition, Will Kymlicka; conception of Minority Rights
• Feminism: Basic Concepts: Patriarchy, misogyny, Gender, Theories of Feminism; Liberal, Socialist, radical and eco-feminism

Above are the topics in Unit 8 for UGC NET Philosophy Syllabus 2025

Unit 9: Logic

• Truth and Validity
• Denotation and Connotation
• Nature of Propositions
• Categorical Syllogism
• Laws of thought
• Classification of Propositions
• Square of Opposition
• Truth-Functions and Propositional Logic
• Quantification and Rules of Quantification
• Symbolic Logic: Use of symbols
• Decision Procedures: Truth Table, Using Truth- Tables for testing the validity of arguments Venn Diagram, informal and formal Fallacies
• Proving Validity, Argument and Argument-form
• Axiomatic System, Consistency, Completeness
• Differences between Deductive and Inductive Logic

Above are the topics covered in Unit 9 for UGC NET Philosophy Syllabus 2025

Unit 10: Applied Philosophy

• What is applied Philosophy?
• Philosophy of Technology; technology, dominance, power and social inequalities Democratization of Technology
• Public evaluation of science and technology
• Ethical Implication of information technology, bio-technology, non-technology
• Environmental Ethics: Nature as means or end, Aldo-Leopold; land-ethics, Arne Naess: Deep Ecology, Peter Singer; Animal Rights
• Medical-Ethics: Surrogacy, Doctor-patient relationship, abortion, euthanasia, female-infanticide Professional Ethics: Corporate Governance and ethical responsibility
• Media Ethics: ethical issues in Privacy, cyber space, pornography, representation and differences-marginalization
• Legal Ethics: law and morality, Legal Obligation, Authority and Validity of Law
• Philosophical Counseling: Managing everyday problems

Above are the topics in Unit 10 for UGC NET Philosophy Syllabus 2025

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UGC NET Philosophy Syllabus – Important Topics

Aspiring candidates preparing the UGC NET Philosophy Syllabus must be well-versed in various philosophical concepts and theories. Here are some essential topics from the UGC NET Philosophy syllabus 2025, questions from which are frequently asked in the exam –

• Indian Philosophy
• Western Philosophy
• Epistemology
• Metaphysics
• Ethics and Moral Philosophy
• Logic and Reasoning
• Political Philosophy
• Social Philosophy
• Philosophy of Religion
• Philosophy of Mind
• Philosophical Thinkers and Schools
• Analytical Philosophy
• Existentialism
• Postmodernism
• Aesthetics and Philosophy of Art

Also go through UGC NET Important Topics for Philosophy and other subjects.

UGC NET Philosophy Exam Pattern 2025

As per the UGC NET Philosophy Exam Pattern, the exam will be conducted in the form of a Computer Based Test over a duration of 3 hours. There will be two papers in the exam such as shown below –

Go through the complete UGC NET Exam Pattern in detail.

Best Books to Prepare UGC NET Philosophy Syllabus

For the Indian Philosophy portion of the UGC NET Philosophy Syllabus, aspiring candidates must read foundational texts from the six orthodox schools of Hindu philosophy - Samkhya, Yoga, Nyaya, Vaisheshika, Purva Mimamsa, and Uttara Mimamsa or Vedanta. Key primary sources to focus on include the Samkhya Karika of Isvarakrishna, the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, the Brahma Sutras of Badarayana, and principle upanishads. For the Western Philosophy portion, quality time must be invested in understanding the works of Plato like The Republic and Meno and works of Aristotle like Nicomachean Ethics, Politics and Metaphysics. Works of important modern philosophers from the seventeenth century onwards whom UGC NET expects examinees to be well-versed with include works of Descartes, Hume, Kant, Hegel, Russell and Wittgenstein. Comprehending these essential primary texts thoroughly will help candidates cover the crux of the UGC NET Paper 2 Philosophy Syllabus.

Check this expert list of UGC NET Philosophy Books to take your preparation to the next level. 

Preparation Tips to Cover UGC NET Philosophy Syllabus

To cover the UGC NET Philosophy Syllabus in entirety and score well in the upcoming UGC NET exam, candidates must have a strategic preparation plan. This involves the following basic practices –

• Developing a systematic reading schedule to completely cover the prescribed syllabus over the preparation period.
• Carefully reading multiple commentaries and explanatory texts for each primary source to gain a nuanced understanding of complex philosophical concepts and viewpoints.
• Making detailed notes arranged chapter/topic-wise for easy revision. Notes should highlight key ideas, arguments, opposing viewpoints and critical analyses.
• Regularly testing comprehension with practice question papers focusing on assessing knowledge of facts, important dates and exact quotes from primary sources.
• Solving previous year question papers, analyzing answer patterns and making note of questions frequently asked from each topic.
• Discussing difficult topics with faculty or peer study groups to clarify concepts.
• Leaving sufficient time for thorough revision of voluminous material close to the exam.

Adhering to a well-planned preparation strategy for UGC NET Philosophy paper can help secure a high score in the final exam.

Also attempt UGC NET Philosophy Previous Year Papers to self-evaluate your preparation.

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