Philosophy Optional Syllabus for UPSC Mains

Philosophy is one of the optional subjects for the UPSC Civil Services Main Examination. Your optional is written as two papers, Paper VI and Paper VII of the mains, each worth 250 marks, and both count towards your final rank along with the Essay and the four General Studies papers.

The CSE 2026 notice says the optional syllabi are "broadly of the honours degree level", which it explains as above a bachelor's degree and below a master's. Below are both Philosophy papers as the notice prints them, a summary of how they are laid out, and some points to consider before you choose.

How the syllabus is organised

Each paper is a numbered list of short topics. Most topics name a philosopher, a school or a problem, followed by the ideas to be covered.

• Paper I: History and Problems of Philosophy. Twenty topics. Topics 1 to 11 run from Plato and Aristotle through the rationalists (Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz), the empiricists (Locke, Berkeley, Hume), Kant and Hegel to Moore, Russell and Wittgenstein, logical positivism, phenomenology, existentialism, and Quine and Strawson. Topics 12 to 20 turn to Indian thought: Carvaka, Jainism, the schools of Buddhism, Nyaya-Vaiesesika, Samkhya, Yoga, Mimamsa, the schools of Vedanta, and Aurobindo.
• Paper II has two parts of ten topics each. Socio-Political Philosophy covers social and political ideals such as equality, justice and liberty, sovereignty, the individual and the state, forms of government, political ideologies, humanism, secularism and multi-culturalism, crime and punishment, development and social progress, and gender and caste discrimination. Philosophy of Religion covers notions of God and the proofs for God's existence, the problem of evil, the soul, reason, revelation and faith, religious experience, religion without God, religion and morality, religious pluralism, and the nature of religious language.

The official syllabus

Here are both papers as the CSE 2026 notice prints them.

Here are both papers of every year from UPSC's own website. Read them alongside the syllabus above.

Who this optional suits

Only you can weigh your interests, your background and the time you have. These pointers may help you think it through.

• Your degree. If you studied philosophy at college, both papers will be familiar ground.
• Following an argument. Paper I covers ideas such as Kant's synthetic a priori judgements, Wittgenstein's language-games and the Nyaya theory of pramana. If you enjoy following a line of reasoning step by step and putting it in your own words, Philosophy may suit you.
• Plan by the syllabus. Because most topics name a thinker, school or problem and list the ideas to cover, you can plan your reading topic by topic and check yourself against the syllabus line by line.
• Links with General Studies. The GS Paper IV syllabus names the contributions of moral thinkers and philosophers from India and the world, and the challenges of corruption. Philosophy studies many thinkers by name, and Paper II has a topic on crime and punishment that includes corruption, so notes from one can feed the other.
• Test it before you commit. Read the full syllabus above, then try answering a question or two from previous year papers. Choose on your own interest and background rather than on what others pick.

To compare Philosophy with every other subject you could choose, see the full list of UPSC optional subjects and our note on how to choose an optional. For where the optional sits among the nine papers, see the UPSC Mains syllabus; for the related General Studies paper, see the GS Paper 4 (Ethics) syllabus.

This page follows the CSE 2026 notice. UPSC's calendar lists the CSE 2027 notification for 13 January 2027 (see the UPSC calendar). When it is out, check its syllabus against this page before you plan your year.