Entrance Examinations -2016
M.Phil. Philosophy

Time: 2 hours Max. Marks: 75
Instructions:
The question paper consists of two parts: Part A and Part B

Part A of the question paper consists of45 objective (multiple-choice) questions of one mark each. There will be a negative mark of 0.33 for every wrong answer. You must answer the questions in the OMR only. Part B consists of short and long essay type questions. separate answer book is
-provided)
Part-A
1. Which of the following was not one of Plato's ideas? The belief that our display of virtue or other qualities in the world was merely an
imperfect reflection of the true reality. The belief that there was another world of ideal qualities called Forms The belief that only democracy could make the philosopher-king possible The belief that the ideal state would allow people to work at jobs where their talents
lie.
2. In his discussion of the Divided Line; Plato says that, in contrast to mere belief or opinion, knowledge is a belief for which we give reasons or justifications by appealing: To what our senses reveal to us about how things appear to us, not how they really are. Beyond our senses reveal to us about how things appear to us, not how they really are. To what we sincerely believe is true about the Forms based on our experiences in the
world.
Beyond sense experience to unchanging ideas (Forms) that are perceived as rationally ordered.
3. According to Socrates, it is important that we discover what makes a particular action
(e.g., a merciful or just act) the kind of action that it is, because without such knowledge: no one in society will ever do any action that really is merciful or just, only those actions that they think are merciful or just. the primary purpose of human existence--which is to think and to know--is replaced by a focus on morality (acting and doing). . we can refer only to how people characterize actions without knowing why such actions should be characterized that way. there would be no way to distinguish one kind of action (e.g., a merciful action) from another kind of action (e.g., a just action).

4.
Aristotle maintains that true happiness is:

Important as a philosophical idea but is not a legitimate human goal
Activity in accordanee with virtue
Found in relationships with family and friends
Unattainable for humans


5.
What device does Descartes employ to aid him in his systematic, methodological doubt and skepticism? Government Education and the lack of it Life Religion

6.
Berkely argues against the existence of .... Material substance Ideas God Spiritual substance

7.
Which of the following statements takes the form of acategorical"imperative according to Kant7 If you want to s'ucceed, get a degree Don't murder ifyol,l want to get into heaven Always keep'You promises, no matter what.' Honor elder in order to live happily

8.
An interesting feature of the ontological Argument is that ...

It purports to derive God's existence directly from the very concept of God It introduces the idea ofPrime Mover It relies on faith, rather than reason It attempts to derive the existence ofGod from our observation about the world

9.
Truth, according to Kierkegaard is a matter of .... Universal and impersonal objectivity Having a beliefthat you hold passionately and without doubt Having a beliefthat can be proven by observation Having a belief that can be proven by one's reason

10.
A distinctive feature of virtue theory is that it places the ethical focus on .... Rules Consequences Reason Character




11.
According to Hume, the only way to prove a claim is to show that ... The preponderance of evidence favors the truth of the claim. The denial of the claim entails contraction It corroborates the scripture The acceptance of the claim is doubtful

12.
According to Russell, when we infer that there are other minds, what sort of inference are we making? Deductive Scientific Probabilistic Logical

13.
What does Searle's Chinese Room thought experiment allegedly show about the Turing test? That the Turing test won't be able to distinguish understanding from lack thereof. That the Turing test is the best we can hope for when trying to figure out whether

machine can think That the Turing test is based on a false assumption That the Turing test fails to capture what we ordinarily mean by the word 'think'.

14.
Consider the following statements regarding Berkeley:


1. He is empiricist, idealist and rejects abstract ideas. ." 2. He is empiricist and rejects extra mental world.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
1 only
2 only
Both 1 and
Neither 1 nor2

15. Consider the following statements associated with Descartes:
1.
Substance is an existent thing which requires nothing but itself in order to exist

2.
Nothing but God answers to this description.


Which of the above statements is/are correct?
1 only
2 only
Both1and 2
Neither 1 nor 2

16. Consider the following statements:
1.
Nyaya philosophy asserts that consciousness is an adventitious attribute of the self

2.
According to Nyaya philosophy, soul is neither created nor destroyed.


Which of the above statements is/are correct?
1 only
2 only
Both1and 2
Neither 1 nor 2


17.
Which one of the following is not acceptable to Buddhism? Perception devoid of name Perception is indeterminate in tPe first moment and determinate in the next moment The object of percepti<m is svalalqana Svalalqana is not apprehended by inference

18.
Which one of the following statements illustrates the theory of akhyiitiviida? Error consists in the want of discrimination betWeen direct apprehension and memory Error emerges due to incorrect perception Error emerges due to misapprehension of the object Error emerges due to a defect in the sense-organ

19.
According to Sri Aurobindo, the ascent from mind to Supermind takes place through the following order of steps: Illumined mind, Overmind; Intuitive mind, Higher mind Illumined mind, Higher mind, Intuition, Overmind Higher· mind., Illumined mind, Intuitive mind, Overmind Intuitive mind, Overmind, Illumined mind, Higher mind

20.
According to the Vaisesika school the universal of a 'cowness' is ..

21.
Identify which one among the following does not stand for kle$haaccording to yoga. Abhinivesa Asmita Avidya Akrta

22.
The theory that one and same object cannot be known through different pramiilJas is known as...' . Svata/:zpriimiilJyaviida .


Non-eternal and many
Eternal and many
Eternal, one and residing in many
Non-eternal and one "

PramiilJasamplava PramiilJavyavastha Parta/:zpriimiilJyaviida
23. Which one among the following explanations would represent Sankara's view? A partial change in the cause produces the effect. The complete change in the cause produces the effect The cause remains unchanged and appears as the effect The destruction of cause produces the effect

r

24.
Which one of the following is correct according to Nyaya Philosophy? God is both material and efficient cause of the world God is not co-eternal with atoms and souls God neither can create innumerable eternal atoms and eternal souls, nor can He

destroy them
Rational explanation ofGod is not possible


25.
The logical form of the argument, A -lo Band therefore is known as ... Hypothetical syllogism Modus Tollens Disjunctive syllogism Modus ponens


Instruction: Please read the passage carefully and answer the following questions. The answer to some of the questions may require simple reasoning and ability to draw inference from the text. Choose the best answer to the question.
Ironic Coda to Fraudulent Study ofBias
Last summer while media clamored to him to comment on a scientific scandal he had helped
revealed David Broockman was keeping an explosive secret of his own. Just months earlier, he and Joshua Kalla, political scientists, now at Stanford University, Palo Alto, California and the University of California Berkeley, respectively, had revealed a study published by Science in 2014 as likely resting completely on fake data. Now, however, Broockman's own work was confirming that the effect claimed by the fraudulent study was real after alL
The study asserted that a short interview by a gay ifdone right, can powerfully reduce people's prejudices, specifically about same-sex marriage, a "finding" that stunned social scientists. But Broockman and Kalla found discrepancies in the paper, and its lead author, political science graduate student Michael LaCour, never produced the raw data to address them. Meanwhile, the two whistle blowers had their own study underway to test the same canvassing technique with hot-button topic: trans-gender people.
In one of the strangest twists in social science history, their study, published recently, shows that the canvassing strategy really can influence biases. "The data are solid and the analysis convincing," says Gabriel Lenz, a political scientist at UC Berkeley who was asked by the funders of the study to verify that the data were truly collected. The effect is "so large and enduring," he says, "that many researchers will be skeptical."
The new study and the retracted one both.focus on a persuasion technique pioneered by the Los
Angeles Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) Center in California, whose
canvassers have conducted more than 13,000 face-to-face interviews over its nearly 50-year
history. "Prejudice against transgender and' gender-nonconforming people is a terrible daily

L-37­
reality," says the center's director, David Fleischer. So the canvassers aim not just to survey existing prejudices or spread awareness, but to permanently change people's minds.
They are up against decades ofr€search that have produced little evidence that such biases can be altered, says Elizabeth Paluck, a political scientist at Princeton University. And because attitudes toward transgender people often involve deeply held beliefs and strong emotions, she says, "many scholars would have pegged transgender prejudice as more persistent than others." That was what made the results ofLaCour's now retracted study all the more amazing.
After trying many different persuasion techniques over the years, the LGBT Center has its canvassers follow one called "analogic perspective taking." inviting someone to discuss an experience in which that person was perceived as different and treated unfairly, a canvasser tries to generate sympathy for the suffering ofanother group-such as gay or transgender people. "We knew from our own periodic attempts at self-measurement that we appeared to be achieving strong, lasting results," Fleischer says, but the group wanted more proof.
So the LGBT Center reached out to academic researchers to rigorously test the technique. Unfortunately for them, the first one they worked with waS dishonest. The scandai was "like a big punch to our collective gut," Fleischer says. But he knew that Broockman and Kalla were evaluating the same canvassing technique in Miami, Florida, with funding from the Gill Foundation, a Denver':'based nonprofit that promotes equal rights for LGBT people.
That is why the pair examined LaCour's results so carefully. The closer they looked, the more the study just didn't make sense. example, LaCour that 92% of the people who took part were interviewed at work, "but not even that many people have jobs," Broockman says. Also, the response rate seemed unbelievably high.
With just 2 weeks to go before they launched their own study, Broockman recalls, "we were in a panic." So they reached out to LaCour's co-author, Donald Green, a political 'scientist at Columbia University who was a mentor to both Broockman and Kalla. Soon after he learned of their concerns, Green started the process that led to his voluntary retraction ofthe paper. (LaCour disputes that the data were fraudulent and did not consent to the retraction.)
For their version of the study, Broockman and Kalla sent 56 canvassers-some transgender, othersnot-toknockonthedoors of501peoplelivinginMiami. Asacontrol,some of the interviews focused not on transgender discrimination, but on recycling. In all cases, the 10­minute interview included a survey before and after to measure people's attitudes regarding transgender people, as well asfollow-ups ranging up to 3 months later.
The effect was as powerful as LaCour's supposed results: The canvassing technique virtually erased the transgender prejudices of about one in 10 people, and the change lasted at least 3
months. However, Broockman and Kalla found that the interviews reduced prejudice regardless
of the gender status of the canvasser, in contrast to the retracted study, which suggested that the
interviewer had to be a representative of the victimized population for the change to stick.

"The findings are compelling and it will be important to see how generalizable they are in future studies," says political psychologist Diana Mutz of the University of Pennsylvania. Opinions on the relatively new topic oftransgender people, she notes, "may not be fully crystallized, thus potentially making them easier to persuade on this issue than other well-established controversies such as gay marriage."
Green says he is pleased that the LBGT Center's approach has been vindicated. The center "suffered a terrible blow when LaCour's surveys turned out to be phony, as the center's outreach efforts were written offby many as naIve," Green says. "Now, the center has a proper scholarly evaluation of its innovative and important work." (John Bohannon, Science, 8 April, 2016)
26. The data that LaCour had gathered concerns determining the attitude of common people, after a short canvassing, about

lesbian relationships


gay marraige·and lesbian marriage


bisexual relationships


transgender marriage


27. The data that Broockman and Kalla had gathered concerns determining the attitude of common people, after a short canvassing, towards
lesbian relationships

gay relationships


bisexual relationships


transgender relationships


28. The conclusion that LaCour and Green drew from their (alleged) data and the conclusion that Broockman and Kana drew from their data seem to be

very similar in nature


diametrically opposed to each other


logically independent of each other


irrelevant for each other.


29. LaCour and Green, as well as Broockman and Kalla in their study employed

very similar method developed independently by the two groups


very similar method developed by LaCour and Green


very similar method developed by the LGBT Centre, Los Angeles, California


different methods




30. People in the LGBT Centre were keen to show that the success of their canvassing technique to bring about a change in attitude among people at large

have an adequate empirical basis


have an adequate empirical basis certified by the academia


was a result ofDavid Fleischer's leadership in the LGBT Centre


does not require any further empirical verification


31. The Analogic Perspective Taking technique employed in canvassing involves

reliving an earlier experience of being treated unfairly and thereby sympathizing for the LGBT group


generating first sympathy for oneselfand then transfering that to the LGBT group


generating sympathy for the LGBT group "


making people feel sorry and sending them on a guilt trip for treating the LGBT community people padly


32. The reason that led Broockman and Kalla to doubt the empirical result published by LaCour and Green (although later retracted) was

that the prejudice of people" can be altered by a short one time canvassing procedure was somewhat novel to the social scientists


that the raw data that people's prejudicial attitudes 'were actually altered were unavailabJe for the scrutiny.


both and


None ofthe above


33. The Broockman and Kalla result about transgender prejudices and LaCour and Green alleged result about the prejudice concerning same sex marriage seem show that in the Indian context similar canvassing technique

may work or not is a matter of empirical investigation


must work for removing prejudices against inter-caste caste relations


must work for removing prejudices against inter-linguistic relations


must work for removing prejudices against inter-religious relations


34. According to some social scientists, in USA, the result about the mitigation of transgender prejudice

may be generalizable to same sex marriage prejudice


may be generalizable to bisexual relationship prejudice


Both and


None of the above


35. Broockman and Kalla's experiment used a control while investigating mitigation of transgender prejudice and it was


same sex marriage


recycling


inter-racial relationship


none ofthe above


36. LaCour's result was also interesting in that the canvassers were

members only of the victimised community


not always members of the victimised community


never members of the victimised community


picked up at random


37. Broockman and Kalla's results were interesting in a different way in that the canvassers for the control group included

members only of the transgender community


some members of the transgender community


no members of the transgender community


none of the above


38. In the canvassing technique the following steps were employed:

a survey to measure the attitude prior to the interview, followed by the interview and a survey after a long gap sometimes up to 3 months


a survey to measure the attitude prior to the interview and the interview


the interview, a survey immediately after the interview, and a survey after long gap sometimes up to 3 months.


None of the above is correct:'


39. The success of the canvassing technique is measured by

a survey immediately before and a survey immediately after the interview


the surveys immediately before and immediately after the interview but also the survey after a long gap


the number of people who were interviewed agreeing to do canvassing later


none of the above


40. Elizabeth Paluck and Diane Mutz

hold somewhat contrary views about how deep rooted the prejudice against the transgender is among common people


hold quite compatible views about how deep rooted the prejudice against the transgender is among common people


hold contradictory views about how deep rooted the prejudice against the transgender is among common people.


all of the above



41. If the prejudice against transgender is relatively new and hence may not be deep rooted, the success of the canvassing technique

nevertheless shows the successful generalizability of the technique to any form of prejudice


is to be accepted with a great deal of moderation


is to be accepted as a one time miracle


none of the above


42. Broockman and Kalla's work showed that the gender status of the canvasser

was completely independent of the result achieved


contributed in part to the result achieved


was a dominant contributor to the result achieved


none of the above


43. The success rate reported by Broockrnan and Kalla in mitigating prejudices against
transgender is approximately
20 percent. 0.2 percent . 10 percent none ofthe above
44. The success that Broockman and Kalla achieved may be a result of .
pursuing the research in Miami . pursuing the research by a funding agent from Denver both and none of the above
45. The success that Brockman and Kalla's work also suggests is .,. it is rather easy to mitigate any prejudice it is not very easy to mitigate somewhat deep rooted prejudice


it is a matter of luck which method succeeds in social science research


all of the above


Part-C
Section-l 10 Marks
Write short notes on any two of the following in 250 words each. All questions carry equal marks. Attempt at least one question from each group.
Group-I:
1.
Explain the role of sadhanacatustaya in Sankara's philosophy.

2.
How is Ramanuja's concept ofDharmabhiltajiiiina different from Sankara's concept of Svarilpajiiiina? Explain

3.
What are the effects of cittavrtti according to Yoga darsana?

4.
On what basis causality is denied in Carvaka dadana?


Group -II
1.
Aristotle's distinct-ion between 'actually' and 'potentiality'.

2.
Hussed's nati.on of 'bracketing' .

3.
Strawson's distinction between predicates.

4.
G.E. refutation of idealism.


Section-2 20 Marks
Answer any two of the following in 500 words each. All questions carry equal marks. Attempt at least one question from each group.
Group-I:
1.
What do Samvara and Nirjara mean'f Explain their significance in Jaina theory of liberation.'"

2.
What is the role ofPratityasamutpiida in explaining Du/:lkha? Elucidate the means to overcome it.

3.
Evaluate Nyaya-Mlmfuhsa debate on Priimayaviida.

4.
Explain the reasons for introducing the notion of alaukikapratyak$a in Navyanyaya.



Group-II
1.
Explain Plato's theory of forms. Does itentail a kind of essentialism? Discuss.

2.
What do you understand by 10gicalcOlmectives? Explain with the help of truth tables.

3.
Descartes comes to the conclusion that "there are no reliable signs by which I can distinguish sleeping from waking." .What considerations lead him to this conclusion?

4.
Do you agree with Hume when he says that we are never able to observe the connection that ties cause with effect? Why or why not?