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.

FAQs on Ethics

Q. What are the main subjects in Ethics for the UPSC exam?

A. When we look at the main subjects, there are different subjects for the relative set of exams. The exam subjects differ according to the paper criteria. For the UPSC exam, the subjects of Ethics are human values, attitude, aptitude, emotional intelligence, Ethics and human interference, and so on.

Q. What helps in the identification of ethical and unethical issues?

A. It does not depend on the person who decides what is ethical or what is not. It depends on the nature of the situation. As we see that during a political war, every party gets involved in a situation that is sometimes considered ethical, whereas some people think that their actions are unethical.

Q. What is the duration of the course in Ethics?

A. When we look at the Ethics syllabus in the MA course, which spans two years, it is divided into four main semesters. The scope of Ethics in MA is good as it covers a wide range of subjects or topics in the syllabus.

Q. Will one have to clear any entrance exam to get admission to MA in Ethics?

A. Yes, students have to take a particular entrance test while seeking admission to MA in Ethics. The students will get admission on an entrance-exam basis. Some colleges have the criteria for enrolling students based on their graduation-level scores. The point is that students must score high marks for admission.

Q. What is the role of Ethics in the master's degree?

A. A master’s degree will further expand a student’s knowledge base and will teach them more complex concepts of Ethics.

Q. Will the students have to appear in any examination for getting admission?

A. It depends on the college, and what the admission process is. Sometimes, colleges consider students' marks in graduation. To get admission into a particular college, a student has to look at the college website and syllabus properly.

Q. What is the syllabus for Ethics?

A. The Ethics subject will also cover a wide range of topics. And these types of topics are also important for class terms. The topics include content, function, the structure of Ethics, objectivity, dedication, moral and political attitudes, and its relation and influence.

Q. What are the contents of Ethics that can be found in the UPSC syllabus?

A. The UPSC syllabus includes major terms for Ethics such as Ethics and human interference, attitude, human values, aptitude and foundational value, Ethics in public administration, case studies, and emotional intelligence. The students will see the term case studies for their respective subject-wise topics.

Q. Is there any difference between Ethics and other terms or fields?

A. Ethics is a term related to the practical knowledge of actions that are right or wrong. The terms discussed in Ethics are related to concepts such as the power to make decisions. At the same time, other terms will include the investigation of resources that are not logically related.

Q. What is the scope of Ethics?

A. Ethics is related to various subjects as it deals with the idea of knowledge. The scope of Ethics includes three things, i.e., meta-Ethics, normative Ethics, and applied Ethics.

Q. What is the educational requirement to get admission to Ethics courses?

A. Bachelor's degree percentage counts a lot. A student has to get a minimum of 50% in their graduation degree to get admission to the MA in Ethics programmes. Or it depends on the college, whether it is conducting any entrance test or not. If there is a particular entrance test, then the student has to clear it, and then they will get admission to that particular college.

Q. What are the characteristics of Ethics?

A. The nature of Ethics is discussed with the help of several points. Some points are discussed below:

  • Logical nature: Ethics is a regulating science that decides standards and virtues in an individual and a singular personality. It defends what is right and what is wrong.

  • Variable nature: Ethics aren’t static. They aren’t similar all the time. People change and the profound quality and moral viewpoint in them change accordingly.

  • Especially for human beings: Ethics must be applied to people as we are the ones who have the limits about moral judgement. We can't expect moral behaviour from creatures—morals are solely for individuals.

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

Popular Ethics Colleges in India

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Popular Private Ethics Colleges in India

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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.

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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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