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Hey all I've been asked by many to write something on my strategy for philosophy optional. With a disclaimer in the beginning, let’s proceed.
Disclaimer: This is my first attempt with philosophy. yes, i have got an interview call but that's not really conclusive about "good" marks in philosophy and i'm not saying this just for the sake of being defensive but i am a living proof myself of such a possibility: in 2015 mains, i scored less than 40% in my then optional (math) and yet got an under-200 rank in the final list riding on mainly interview and somewhat on essay marks. So go read on the following if you still consider such credentials worthy.
Paper I
Section A - Western Philo Breaking it up in two part as i adopted two different appraoches: Ancient + Modern & Contemporary
Ancient + Modern: Sources: Mitra Sir's notes [printed], notes of a University teacher i got from a friend who had philo optional 2-3 years earlier
Explanation In case of Ancient, there isn’t much per se. I mean, Plato & Aristotle would seem like very small. But what’s important is to actually be able to write a logical answer. For that, i used to write previous year questions. Writing an answer about “Explain Plato’s theory of forms” is alright but we need to be able to answer questions like “is knowledge one of the forms?” [2013 Mains]. The kind of understanding that’s required to answer the latter kind of questions will enable one to move one step beyond what’s written in notes coz to answer them, u need to dig a little deeper, discuss with peers and teachers and even read some. That’s all about ancient.
In case of modern philo, everything seems to be very logical and connected. That’s true for most part like Descartes, Leibnitz, Locke and Hume. Other two philosophers, Spinoza and Berkeley may be slightly challenging. Leaving them aside, let’s see the first 4. We need to answer questions like “Leibnitz principle of identity of indescernibles” properly without beating the bush. For this, going beyond printed notes would be required IMO. Dig something more to get concrete points on such questions where ready answers aren’t available. In my case, my friend’s notes helped.
Kant – friend’s notes Hegel – left it ultimately after spending too much time “trying” to understand it!
Contemporary: Patanjali’s printed notes + mitra’s printed notes + my friend’s notes Explanation Moore – Patan sufficient Logical Positivism – Patan’s notes + friend’s notes Russell –There are 3 topics overall in Russell. Read them in reverse order. They would make more sense that way. Wittgenstein – Patan’s notes would do. Phenomenology – Mitra Existentialism – found it the toughest of all. Could do it in a staggered manner only: used NPTEL’s video for Heidegger, Sparknotes for Keirkegaard and finally an assortment of topics from Patanjali and mitra for Sartre. Ultimately, i attempted a question from Sartre’s [part by jotting something down taking bits from everything i read on it]. Quine and Strawson – Patan’s notes + friend’s notes
INDIAN PHILOSOPHY
SOURCES: MITRA & PATANJALI PRINTED. Handwritten notes of Patanjali only for Vedanta topic _ Dutta and Chatterjee and CD Sharma [both books used extremely sparingly] Explanation Just read, re-read and re-re-read every topic. Other than that’ i made a lot of acronyms to learn things like proofs of purusha, prakriti, 12 links in dhammachakra, and even easier things like Charvaka’s arguments for non-validity of inference as a valid source of knowledge. Acronyms made my life easier. Could revise them in a matter of 30 minutes. Specifically, i used to write answers of previous year questions. And would send them to Mitra sir and friends for evaluation Some of the questions of which there are no readymade answers available like “what are the metaphtysical implications of introducing alaukika pratyakasha pramana in Nyaya’s epistemology”, i used to discuss these with Mitra sir and a professor in Delhi university to get as close to the answer as possible, if at all i have to attempt these in the exam. By doing this exercise, i understood some of the things better and also understand the limitation of my own knowledge that would ultimately help me in choosing better questions in the paper. Books were used for topics like “how does theory of impermanence lead to momentariness in Buddhism?”
Paper II
Section A The whole section is as subjective as the subjectivity itself gets! Minimal usage of coaching notes as such. Only for factual topics like Sovereignty. though Mitra sir was very kind to review my answers. I followed @neyawn ‘s advice in this part of philosophy. googled topics of syllabus, got some research papers and books online and jot down some points for almost every topic. Example: https://www.google.co.in/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwi80s_KtfTSAhVMvI8KHZ0rByQQFggZMAA&url=http://www.ipu.org/PDF/publications/DEMOCRACY_PR_E.pdf&usg=AFQjCNF1FkwjaD8mwwy-hQy2ceR6bQQ6Hw&bvm=bv.150729734,d.c2I This is link to a document on democracy by IPU. I read its last chapter on problems of democracy and how to solve it. Now the thing is that it’s not a radical document that will give us something very extraordinary. The deal is that here one may get some kind of novelty that one can use in your answer on democracy. Other than that, i used to draw a lot of diagrams. Some of the diagrams were pretty global, which can be used anywhere. An example would be Maslow’s pyramid, i drew it somewhere in the final paper also. But is should be contextual. More specifically, topics like Kant’s duties are very small yet upsc asks full questions on them. So for them, i googled some images which i can simply put in the exam should the need arise.
Religion: Base material – Patanjali’s printed. Explanation: made 1 page note of every syllabus of topic [except for Proofs of existence of God, for obvious reasons]. At the end of prep, all i would need to read was my own notes – no books. As in section A of Paper II, i googled some stuff. Here, i took the lead from previous year’s papers as some questions were not satisfactorily answers in notes. An element of subjectivity creeps in religion too sometimes. Like how’s Buddhism a religion despite Anatmavada? If you google it or discuss it, then there will be more points to write. My googling led on this question led me here: http://creation.com/atheism-a-religion I hope i’m driving the point home. It wasn’t my individual endeavour though. A friend who would be appearing this year helped me immensely esp in difficult topics like Religious experience. Very much indebted to him!
So folks, i hope this >1000 word piece answers some of your questions and the floor is open to questions now!
@yoga123 ....nicely put up Yoga Bhai...one more thing..if you could also reveal the source of your friends note...it would be of immense help...i mean was it his own notes made from various books or some teacher????? thanks buddy
@yoga123 ....nicely put up Yoga Bhai...one more thing..if you could also reveal the source of your friends note...it would be of immense help...i mean was it his own notes made from various books or some teacher????? thanks buddy
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Comments
Friend
Please Share Complete Strategy for PHILOSOPHY Including Coaching.
Please, Your Guidance is needed.
All the Best for interview.
Please Share Complete Strategy for PHILOSOPHY Including Coaching.
Please, Your Guidance is needed.
All the Best for interview.
7838040154
Out for 3rd tym
Let's do it this tym
U hav to supplement them
I've been asked by many to write something on my strategy for philosophy optional. With a disclaimer in the beginning, let’s proceed.
Disclaimer:
This is my first attempt with philosophy. yes, i have got an interview call but that's not really conclusive about "good" marks in philosophy and i'm not saying this just for the sake of being defensive but i am a living proof myself of such a possibility: in 2015 mains, i scored less than 40% in my then optional (math) and yet got an under-200 rank in the final list riding on mainly interview and somewhat on essay marks.
So go read on the following if you still consider such credentials worthy.
Paper I
Section A - Western Philo
Breaking it up in two part as i adopted two different appraoches: Ancient + Modern & Contemporary
Ancient + Modern:
Sources: Mitra Sir's notes [printed], notes of a University teacher i got from a friend who had philo optional 2-3 years earlier
Explanation
In case of Ancient, there isn’t much per se. I mean, Plato & Aristotle would seem like very small. But what’s important is to actually be able to write a logical answer. For that, i used to write previous year questions. Writing an answer about “Explain Plato’s theory of forms” is alright but we need to be able to answer questions like “is knowledge one of the forms?” [2013 Mains]. The kind of understanding that’s required to answer the latter kind of questions will enable one to move one step beyond what’s written in notes coz to answer them, u need to dig a little deeper, discuss with peers and teachers and even read some. That’s all about ancient.
In case of modern philo, everything seems to be very logical and connected. That’s true for most part like Descartes, Leibnitz, Locke and Hume. Other two philosophers, Spinoza and Berkeley may be slightly challenging.
Leaving them aside, let’s see the first 4. We need to answer questions like “Leibnitz principle of identity of indescernibles” properly without beating the bush. For this, going beyond printed notes would be required IMO. Dig something more to get concrete points on such questions where ready answers aren’t available. In my case, my friend’s notes helped.
Kant – friend’s notes
Hegel – left it ultimately after spending too much time “trying” to understand it!
Contemporary: Patanjali’s printed notes + mitra’s printed notes + my friend’s notes
Explanation
Moore – Patan sufficient
Logical Positivism – Patan’s notes + friend’s notes
Russell –There are 3 topics overall in Russell. Read them in reverse order. They would make more sense that way.
Wittgenstein – Patan’s notes would do.
Phenomenology – Mitra
Existentialism – found it the toughest of all. Could do it in a staggered manner only: used NPTEL’s video for Heidegger, Sparknotes for Keirkegaard and finally an assortment of topics from Patanjali and mitra for Sartre. Ultimately, i attempted a question from Sartre’s [part by jotting something down taking bits from everything i read on it].
Quine and Strawson – Patan’s notes + friend’s notes
INDIAN PHILOSOPHY
SOURCES: MITRA & PATANJALI PRINTED. Handwritten notes of Patanjali only for Vedanta topic _ Dutta and Chatterjee and CD Sharma [both books used extremely sparingly]
Explanation
Just read, re-read and re-re-read every topic. Other than that’ i made a lot of acronyms to learn things like proofs of purusha, prakriti, 12 links in dhammachakra, and even easier things like Charvaka’s arguments for non-validity of inference as a valid source of knowledge. Acronyms made my life easier. Could revise them in a matter of 30 minutes.
Specifically, i used to write answers of previous year questions. And would send them to Mitra sir and friends for evaluation
Some of the questions of which there are no readymade answers available like “what are the metaphtysical implications of introducing alaukika pratyakasha pramana in Nyaya’s epistemology”, i used to discuss these with Mitra sir and a professor in Delhi university to get as close to the answer as possible, if at all i have to attempt these in the exam. By doing this exercise, i understood some of the things better and also understand the limitation of my own knowledge that would ultimately help me in choosing better questions in the paper.
Books were used for topics like “how does theory of impermanence lead to momentariness in Buddhism?”
Paper II
Section A
The whole section is as subjective as the subjectivity itself gets! Minimal usage of coaching notes as such. Only for factual topics like Sovereignty. though Mitra sir was very kind to review my answers.
I followed @neyawn ‘s advice in this part of philosophy. googled topics of syllabus, got some research papers and books online and jot down some points for almost every topic.
Example: https://www.google.co.in/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwi80s_KtfTSAhVMvI8KHZ0rByQQFggZMAA&url=http://www.ipu.org/PDF/publications/DEMOCRACY_PR_E.pdf&usg=AFQjCNF1FkwjaD8mwwy-hQy2ceR6bQQ6Hw&bvm=bv.150729734,d.c2I
This is link to a document on democracy by IPU. I read its last chapter on problems of democracy and how to solve it. Now the thing is that it’s not a radical document that will give us something very extraordinary. The deal is that here one may get some kind of novelty that one can use in your answer on democracy.
Other than that, i used to draw a lot of diagrams. Some of the diagrams were pretty global, which can be used anywhere. An example would be Maslow’s pyramid, i drew it somewhere in the final paper also. But is should be contextual. More specifically, topics like Kant’s duties are very small yet upsc asks full questions on them. So for them, i googled some images which i can simply put in the exam should the need arise.
Example: https://www.google.co.in/imgres?imgurl=http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-xZNCOmnEhro/UVTR6n9G5uI/AAAAAAAAC14/2QX48sm63Po/s1600/Kant+Flow.png&imgrefurl=http://www.rmpsuccess.com/2013/03/kantian-ethics-higher-philosophy.html&docid=ykkoR4izCBVjqM&tbnid=3VNraEKzItrXUM:&vet=10ahUKEwj4oNzWtvTSAhWKM48KHd5rB4AQMwgcKAAwAA..i&w=1500&h=1125&bih=633&biw=1366&q=kan't perfect and imperfect duties flowchart&ved=0ahUKEwj4oNzWtvTSAhWKM48KHd5rB4AQMwgcKAAwAA&iact=mrc&uact=8
Another Example – Amartya sen
https://www.google.co.in/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwi_rIL3tvTSAhVEPI8KHU0_D34QjRwIBw&url=http://www.iep.utm.edu/sen-cap/&bvm=bv.150729734,d.c2I&psig=AFQjCNFNCAVIE9WJ-NDw3og_fbmiM7kBIg&ust=1490626590435400
then topics like Genocide, caste issue were dealt similarly.
Religion: Base material – Patanjali’s printed.
Explanation: made 1 page note of every syllabus of topic [except for Proofs of existence of God, for obvious reasons]. At the end of prep, all i would need to read was my own notes – no books.
As in section A of Paper II, i googled some stuff. Here, i took the lead from previous year’s papers as some questions were not satisfactorily answers in notes. An element of subjectivity creeps in religion too sometimes. Like how’s Buddhism a religion despite Anatmavada? If you google it or discuss it, then there will be more points to write. My googling led on this question led me here: http://creation.com/atheism-a-religion
I hope i’m driving the point home.
It wasn’t my individual endeavour though. A friend who would be appearing this year helped me immensely esp in difficult topics like Religious experience. Very much indebted to him!
So folks, i hope this >1000 word piece answers some of your questions and the floor is open to questions now!