P.S: Both passages are from proc-3.
PASSAGE 1:
The passage given below is followed by a set of questions. Choose the
most appropriate answer to each question.
The preoccupation with vitality involves establishing different kinds of limits or
boundaries to respectively different kinds of relations of vitality. Humans draw a
distinction between their own children and those of another. One usually does not love
another’s children as if they were one’s own. And one does not usually love another
nation as if it were one’s own. Such a limitation on the recognition of, and the love for,
what is understood to be one’s own is a consequence of the preoccupation with the
continuation of the self, both its biological and cultural components. The love that one
has for one’s nation is designated by the term ‘patriotism’.
The widely used term ‘love’ as an expression of the attachments that the individual has to
his or her nation is not altogether satisfactory because we also employ the same term to
describe the attachments one has to one’s paramour, children, friends, and god. Indeed,
some individuals have genuinely loved all of humanity. What such a wide use of the term
indicates is that, in each of these instances, the individual puts aside, or ‘transcends’, his
or her own self-interest for the sake of others. However, understanding properly the
character of such attachments should take into account not only the act of Selftranscendence common to all of these attachments, but also the different objects of those
attachments. Thus, it may be more helpful to distinguish the love for one’s paramour or
children from the ‘love’ for one’s nation by understanding patriotism as signifying
attachments of loyalty to a territorial community. There are often different aspects to the
patriotic attachments that one forms to one’s nation, as a consequence of the different
factors involved in the historical formation of a particular nation. One may, for example,
be loyal to one’s nation because of its laws, or its customs, or its religion. There are
usually many and differing, even conflicting, views of the nation that correspond to these
different factors. However, inescapable is the fact that the individual often shows a
preference for his or her fellow nationals. This preference need not take the form of a
prejudice against, or hatred of, those who are not members of one’s nation. Patriotism
need not deny varying and different pursuits by the members of the nation. It need not
reject differing conceptions of the nation held by members of the nation, as nationalism
often does. Indeed, in so far as patriotism implies a commitment to the well-being of
one’s country, it provides the basis for working out the differences, involving reasonable
compromise, between the individual members of the nation and their differing
conceptions of what the nation should be out of a concern for promoting that well-being.
The process of working out these differences through compromise is politics. The
concern for the well-being of the nation that includes the
willingness to compromise is central to the civility between the members of the nation
that makes politics possible.
39. The author is likely to agree with which of the following statements?
(a) One’s love for oneself leads to love for one’s children and nation.
(b) The love for one’s nation depends on the love for one’s children.
(c) Patriotism like nationalism rejects differing conceptions of the nation held by its
members.
(d) Patriotism arises only when one transcends his/her self-interests.
40. According to the author what is the genesis of politics?
(a) The concern for the well-being of the nation.
(b) Patriotism, because it involves the working out of differences involving compromises
between members of a nation to promote its well-being.
(c) Nationalism because it is the historical formation of a nation.
(d) The different aspects of patriotic attachments that one forms to one’s nation.
41. Which of the following is in line with the author’s concept of love?
A. The term love has lost its true meaning as it is now freely bandied around.
B. Love indicates setting aside or transcending one’s self interest for the sake of others.
C. Patriotism, not love, is a more appropriate term to define what we feel for our country
as it implies self-transcendence.
D. Love is defined by the idea of extension of oneself and not by the property of the
element being loved.
(a) Only B (b) C and A (c) B and C (d) All of the above
PASSAGE 2:
Nobody can tell in advance whether any given work of political thought will have the
effect of Hobbes’s Leviathan or Rousseau’s Social Contract, or to take a later example,
Marx and Engels’s The Communist Manifesto. It depends entirely on whether the
underlying shift in thinking that the philosopher proposes corresponds to political and
social change in such a way that the new ideas can become the commonplaces
of the following generations. Other works of political philosophy have enjoyed a limited
success and then disappeared virtually without trace. But the need for political
philosophy is always there, especially perhaps at moments when we face new political
challenges that we cannot deal with using the conventional wisdom of the day. At these
moments we need to dig deeper, to probe the basis of our political beliefs, and it is here
that we may turn to political philosophy, not perhaps at source, but as filtered through
pamphlets, magazines, newspapers and the like – every successful political philosopher
has relied on media-friendly disciples to put his or her ideas into circulation. But even if
political philosophy answers to a genuine need, are its own credentials genuine? Political
philosophy claims that it can bring to us a kind of truth about politics, something
different from the opinions that guide us from day to day. This claim was presented
most dramatically by Plato, often regarded as the father of the subject, through the
allegory of the cave in the
Republic. Plato likens ordinary people to prisoners who have been chained in a cave in
such a way that they can only see the shadows of things on a screen in front of them.
Plato says that these shadows were the only real things.
Now suppose that one of the prisoners was to be freed and emerged blinking into the
light. In time he would come to see real objects in the world, and understand that what he
had seen before were no more than shadows. But if he were then to return to the cave to
try to persuade his fellows of their mistake, they would be unlikely to believe him. This,
Plato thinks, is the position of the philosopher: he has genuine knowledge
while those around him have only distorted opinions, but because the path to
philosophical knowledge is long and hard, very few are willing to take it.
But was Plato justified in drawing such a sharp contrast between philosophical
knowledge and common opinion? My conception of political philosophy does not
involve endowing philosophers with a special kind of knowledge not available to other
human beings. Instead they think and reason in much the same way as everyone else, but
they do so more critically and more systematically. They take less for granted. It is
easiest to explain this by an example. Suppose we were to ask a politician what his goals
were; what aims or values the political community he belongs to should be trying to
achieve. If he belonged to a contemporary Western society, he would probably come up
with a fairly predictable list: law and order, individual liberty, economic growth, full
employment, and one or two others. How might a political philosopher respond to
this? Well, first of all she would turn the spotlight on the goals themselves and ask which
of them really ultimate goals were.
45. Which of the following statements is/are true with reference to the need for political
philosophy?
A. There exists a need for political philosophy always irrespective of the political
conditions.
B. We confront our beliefs only when faced with crises.
C. The need for political philosophy is maximum when political opinions need to be
supported by political truths.
(a) Only A (b) A and B (c) B and C (d) All of the above
46. Which of the following can be inferred from the passage?
(a) Political philosophers have specialized knowledge.
(b) Our political beliefs draw on the original thoughts of political philosophers although
not necessarily as told to us directly by them.
(c) Political philosophers spread their knowledge directly to the people.
(d) Prisoners in caves believe that the shadows they see are different from real things.
47. Which of the following statements about political philosophers is validated by the
passage?
(a) A political theory that provides answers to problems faced by a time may not
necessarily be correct.
(b) The social and political conditions of a time will decide if a political philosophy will
survive and gain momentum.
(c) Political philosophers think in the same way as do common people.
(d) Political philosophers propose shift in thinking that corresponds to political and social
change.