UGC NET Political Science Political Thought Syllabus

Political Thought syllabus — full chapter and topic list

Expand any chapter to see its topics and sub-topics. This is the whole examinable outline for Political Thought in UGC NET Political Science, not a summary of it.

1. 1

   Philosophers

   16 topics

   • Confucius
   • Plato
   • Aristotle
   • Machiavelli
   • Hobbes
   • Locke
   • Rousseau
   • Hegel
   • Mary Wollstonecraft
   • John Stuart Mill
   • Karl Marx
   • Gramsci
   • Hannah Arendt
   • Frantz Fanon
   • Mao Zedong
   • John Rawls

Political Thought flashcards for UGC NET Political Science

22 of 51 cards from the Political Thought deck — real questions with worked answers.

1. Which work by Confucius (compiled by his disciples) records his sayings and dialogues, and what is its Chinese name?

   The Analects (Lunyu).

2. In Confucian thought, what is 'ren' and what is 'li'?

   Ren is benevolence/humaneness (the supreme virtue of treating others well); li is ritual propriety, the proper rules of conduct, etiquette, and social ceremony.

3. What is the Confucian doctrine of the 'rectification of names' (zhengming)?

   The idea that social order requires each person to act according to the duties of their title/role (a ruler must behave as a ruler, a father as a father), aligning names with reality.

4. In Plato's Republic, what are the three parts of the soul and the three classes of the ideal state they correspond to?

   Soul: reason, spirit, appetite. State: rulers/guardians (reason), auxiliaries/soldiers (spirit), producers (appetite).

5. What is Plato's definition of justice in the Republic?

   Justice is each part/class performing its own proper function and not interfering with the others (a harmonious specialization of roles).

6. What is the meaning of Plato's Allegory of the Cave?

   It depicts ordinary people as prisoners mistaking shadows for reality; the philosopher escapes to see the true Forms (illuminated by the Form of the Good) and returns to enlighten others, illustrating the path from ignorance to knowledge.

7. What controversial communal arrangements does Plato prescribe for the guardian class in the Republic?

   Communism of property and of families/wives and children, so guardians own nothing privately and have no private family that could corrupt their devotion to the common good.

8. In Aristotle's classification of governments, what are the three correct (right) forms and their three corresponding perverted forms?

   Correct: Monarchy, Aristocracy, Polity. Perverted: Tyranny, Oligarchy, Democracy.

9. What does Aristotle mean by calling man a 'zoon politikon'?

   Man is by nature a political animal who can fully realize his nature and the good life only within the polis (city-state).

10. What is Aristotle's 'doctrine of the golden mean'?

    Moral virtue lies in a mean between two vices, one of excess and one of deficiency (e.g., courage is the mean between rashness and cowardice).

11. Which constitution did Aristotle consider the best practicable form, and what was its social basis?

    Polity (a mixture of oligarchy and democracy), based on a large, dominant middle class providing stability.

12. What is the central political maxim associated with Machiavelli's view that rulers should prioritize results over conventional morality?

    That the ends justify the means; a prince may use deceit, force, or immorality when necessary to gain and keep the state.

13. In The Prince, what does Machiavelli mean by 'virtu' and 'fortuna', and how do they relate?

    Virtu is the ruler's skill, energy, and boldness; fortuna is luck/chance. A capable prince uses virtu to master and control fortuna.

14. According to Machiavelli, is it better for a prince to be loved or feared, and why?

    If he cannot be both, it is safer to be feared than loved, because love depends on the fickle wills of others while fear depends on the prince himself, but he should avoid being hated.

15. In Hobbes's Leviathan, how does he describe life in the state of nature?

    A 'war of all against all' (bellum omnium contra omnes) where life is 'solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.'

16. What kind of social contract does Hobbes propose and what kind of sovereign results?

    Individuals surrender all their rights (except self-preservation) to an absolute, undivided sovereign; the sovereign is not a party to the contract and so cannot be resisted.

17. What is the one natural right Hobbes says individuals can never surrender?

    The right of self-preservation (the right to defend one's own life).

18. How does Locke describe the state of nature, in contrast to Hobbes?

    As a state of peace, goodwill, and equality governed by natural law/reason, where people enjoy natural rights but lack an impartial judge to resolve disputes.

19. What are the natural rights Locke says government exists to protect?

    Life, liberty, and property (estate).

20. What is Locke's labour theory of property?

    A person acquires property by mixing their own labour with the resources of nature, making the product rightfully theirs (limited by spoilage and 'enough and as good left for others').

21. What right does Locke grant the people that Hobbes denies, and when is it justified?

    The right of revolution/resistance, justified when government breaches its trust by violating natural rights.

22. What is the famous opening line of Rousseau's The Social Contract?

    'Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains.'

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