Ethics Syllabus 2025: Semester Subjects, Electives, Books, Specializations

Updated on May 20, 2025 05:58 IST

Ethics is a subject built on the knowledge of philosophical issues. In other words, Ethics is a branch of philosophy and is also known as moral philosophy. Ethics is all about delineating the moral principles that govern our behaviour or how we carry out an activity. This subject broadly deals with the concepts of right and wrong behaviour. Students can opt for this subject as an undergraduate course, a diploma, certification, or postgraduate major. After graduating, a student of Ethics can work as a clean energy engineer, bioEthics consultant, ethical hacker, international and human rights specialist, or ethical international trade advisor.

The degrees in Ethics are to be studied with any other subject as a major, most preferably in Philosophy. BA and MA in Ethics are 3-years and 2-years courses respectively.

List of subjects in Ethics

Typical core subject for Ethics

Subject title

Subject details

Ethics and human interferences

The main focus of this subject is on the moral values that a person can imbibe. It comes in the GS4 paper. The main discussion areas are as follows:

? How can a person see whether the actions are ethical or not?

? How can a person deal with society?

? What are the main principles related to Ethics?

Human values

Human interference must include things that are related to the majority of people. How can a majority of people attain these values? For this purpose, a student can get a different set of books according to the prescribed syllabus.

Attitude

For this topic, candidates must focus on relations and thoughts. It includes the political and moral values that can help a person make decisions.

? A student must look at the question paper part two, i.e., in the case studies section.

? The political and moral attitudes or social influence are part of the ethical questions of the theory paper.

Aptitude

To get a high score and attempt the questions in a well-structured way, the candidate must answer maximum questions. This area deals with integrity; for instance, if anyone is offering you a bribe, then how will you react? The terms related to the aptitude test are given below:

? Objectivity

? Empathy

? Tolerance

? Compassion

? Non-partisanship

? Impartiality

Emotional intelligence

From the perspective of the administrator, one can see the three different points related to emotional intelligence. These points are discussed here:

? To understand the terms of the emotions

? To try to control the emotions

? To understand the emotions of other people and try to control them

? Know how to act accordingly in a situation to get an issue solved effectively

Ethical issues in international relations

  • Mutual respect

  • No interference of any kind in each other's internal affairs

  • Protection of human rights

  • Non-violence to be followed

  • Helping others at best

Typical elective subjects for Ethics

Subject title

Subject details

Sharing and transparency in government, RTI, Ethics code, code of conduct

For this, the candidate can refer to the 1964 CCS, i.e., The Central Civil Services Conduct Rules.

The citizen charters, service quality, utilisation of public funds, corruption challenges, work culture

  • UPSC aspirants will have to act in a specific situation, in which they have to tackle many questions related to the citizen's charter.

  • The aspirants also have to give answers to the case study questions.

 

These are the various aspects of the different courses of Ethics. Ethics is a broad concept mainly used in papers like GS4 and mains. To get prepared for the Ethics subject, a student must look at each specific term in detail to get an idea of the core subject.

Detailed Syllabus for Ethics

The syllabus for the Ethics subject may vary term-wise. For studying in each term, a student must read the syllabus and go through it in detail. The term syllabus may vary according to different sections, such as the different topics and other related terms. In the following table, you will see different terms related to the Ethics syllabus.

Semester

Core/ Elective

Subject/Topic

Details

1

Core

Introduction to the discipline

The students are required to study the following topics in the first semester:

  • Introduction to management and Ethics

  • Various disciplines of the Indian educational system

  • The importance of science dealing with management and Ethics

  • A treatise dealing with management and Ethics

  • Domains of management

  • Ethical practices.

2

Core

Individual governance

In this, students will get introduced to the following concepts:

  • Management and ethical practice at the individual level

  • Routine and conduct

  • Conflict resolution at the individual level

  • The concept of attachment and detachment

  • Theory of selfless service

  • Decision making and selection

3

Core

Social Control

This gives students highlights in the following concepts:

  • The concept of rights and duties

  • The preservation of morals, rule violations – justified or unjustified

  • The importance of relative profits, devotion and commitment

  • Leadership, accepting challenges, welfare – its meaning and types, and the preservation of the state and people's welfare

4

Core

Government procedure

It is included in the syllabus for studying the following concepts in detail-

  • Ministerial appointments

  • Government superintendent duties

  • Treasury, spies, royal writ, judiciary

  • Penalties

5

Core

Economic dimension

Next, the students are required 5o study economic dimensions with concepts like:

  • Management and Ethics in business

  • Human resource management

  • Ethical practices

  • Quality preservation, management accounting

  • State body of income

  • Revenue collection

  • Forty ways of embezzlement of revenue

  • Punishment for embezzlement of revenue, expenditure, loss and profit

  • Keeping up accounts

  • Recovery of debts

  • State deposits

  • Resumption of gifts

  • Remission of taxes.

 

6

Core

Political Dimensions

In the political dimensions, students will study the following concepts:

  • Six-fold policy- war

  • Combination of powers

  • Peace agreements with or without specified conditions

  • Double policy

  • Circle of states

  • Corporate conduct

  • Secret means

  • War planning of different vyuhas

Specialisation Offered in Ethics

There are various sectors in which Ethics-related specialisations are offered. Sectors that accept Ethics-related specialisation are education, retail sector, nonprofits, social justice, healthcare and bioEthics, environmental projects, NGO and Not-For-Profit sector, policy development, social work, public administration research and public policy. Students can specialise in these sectors after completing their master's degree.

Specialisation

Subjects

Details

Health and Clinical Ethics

  • Ethics

  • Medicine

  • Clinical studies

The world is realising the importance of the health sector, and similarly, Ethics are to be followed in order to provide utmost care and eliminate malpractices. This specialisation is designed to help patients, doctors, clients, and communities to build a stronger health and clinical sector.

Law, compliance, public policy

 

This specialisation fulfils justice and human needs by introducing ethical practices and standards in the field of law and justice. People with expertise are required to judge accountability in these areas and make sure everybody's rights are preserved. Students can pursue this specialisation if they want to get into law and public policy framework and analysis.

Business and Social entrepreneurship

 

This specialisation helps students as well as nations two-fold. One by injecting ethical practices into the business field; secondly that students can take up entrepreneurship and build their startups after doing this study. Businesses are seeking out ways to fulfil their corporate social responsibility that can be helped by conducting the business ethically.

Books and Authors related to Ethics

To get proper knowledge of Ethics concepts, students must read all the different sets of books. Here are the books that aspirants can refer to prepare well for the exam.

Subject

Book Title

Author

Description

Ethics

Ethics: The Fundamentals

Julia Driver

Written in the year 2006 by the author named Julia Driver. It is an excellent starting point for anybody curious about morals and profound values in society. The book presents various key moral frameworks in an exceptionally clear, insightful style, including prudence morals, Kantian morals, the divine order hypothesis, and women's activism morals. Packed with genuine models and spanning 192 pages, this is a splendid prologue to the significant developments regarding morals and ethical quality.

Ethics

Being Good: A Short Introduction to Ethics

Simon Blackburn

Simon Blackburn, writer of The Top of The Line, writes a general prologue to theory (which highlights the first experience with reasoning and understanding) and presents a book that explains concepts lucidly. Blackburn generally centres his 172-page presentation around issues in morals, from our status as moral creatures to the underpinnings of moral decisions.

Ethics

On the Genealogy of Morals

Friedrich Nietzsche

In the Genealogy of Morals, Nietzsche dangerously investigates all ethical frameworks that preceded him and hauled the peruser out of any assumptions about what establishes 'great', 'evil', 'awful inner voice' as well as economic standards and the reason for life. Nietzsche proposes an absolute 'revaluation of values', contending that all ethical ways of thinking since Socrates have been the profound quality of the frail. Assuming that human civilization is to advance, we should embrace motivations that adhere to accepting life.

Table of contents
  • Popular Ethics Colleges in India
  • Popular Private Ethics Colleges in India
  • Popular Exams
  • Popular Ethics PG Courses

Popular Ethics Colleges in India

Following are the most popular Ethics Colleges in India. Learn more about these Ethics colleges (Courses, Reviews, Answers & more) by downloading the Brochure.
4 K - 6 K
2 Courses
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Popular Private Ethics Colleges in India

4 K - 6 K
2 Courses
80 K
5.9 K
28.15 K

Popular Exams

Following are the top exams for Ethics. Students interested in pursuing a career on Ethics, generally take these important exams.You can also download the exam guide to get more insights.

Jun '26

CPGET 2026 Notification

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Jun '26

CPGET 2026 Registration

TENTATIVE

3 Jan ' 26 - 30 Jan ' 26

CUET 2026 Application Process

11 May ' 26 - 31 May ' 26

CUET 2026 Exam

27 Feb ' 26

Last date to apply for March Attempt

14 Mar ' 26

SAT India exam (March attempt)

Mar '26

PUBDET 2026 Applications

TENTATIVE

To Be Notified:

PUBDET 2026 Application Correction Window

Popular Ethics PG Courses

Following are the most popular Ethics PG Courses . You can explore the top Colleges offering these PG Courses by clicking the links below.

PG Courses

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