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CSAT 2023 paper

UPSC CSE CSAT 2023 · Question 72 · Reading comprehension

Which one of the following statements best reflects the most rational, logical and practical…

Passage—2

“Science by itself is not enough, there must be a force and discipline outside the sciences to coordinate them and point to a goal. It is not possible to run a course aright when the goal itself has not been rightly placed. What science needs is philosophy — the analysis of scientific method and the coordination of scientific purposes and results; without this, any science must be superficial. Government suffers, precisely like science, for lack of philosophy. Philosophy bears to science the same relationship which statesmanship bears to politics: movement guided by total knowledge and perspective, as against aimless and individual seeking. Just as the pursuit of knowledge becomes scholasticism when divorced from the actual needs of men and life, so the pursuit of politics becomes a destructive bedlam when divorced from science and philosophy.”

CSAT 2023 · Q72

Reading comprehension Hard

Which one of the following statements best reflects the most rational, logical and practical message conveyed by the passage?

Answer & explanation

Answer: (b) It is not desirable to have Governments managed by empirical statesmen unless well mixed with others who are grounded in learning and reflect wisdom.

The passage says government, like science, suffers for lack of philosophy, and that politics divorced from science and philosophy becomes a 'destructive bedlam'. The practical lesson is that government should not be left to merely empirical statesmen; they must work alongside people grounded in learning and wisdom.

  • ✗ (a) Tempting, but the passage does not ask every statesman to be trained in scientific method; it asks that politics be guided by knowledge and perspective — a narrower, less practical prescription.
  • ✓ (b) 'Government suffers ... for lack of philosophy' and politics becomes 'bedlam when divorced from science and philosophy' — so rule by the merely empirical needs the balance of the learned and wise.
  • ✗ (c) An education system training all citizens from an early age goes far beyond anything the passage discusses.
  • ✗ (d) 'All scientists' must be philosophers is extreme; the passage wants philosophy as a coordinating discipline 'outside the sciences', and its real concern is government.

Remember · When asked for the 'most practical' message, prefer the moderate, workable conclusion; drop options that demand training for everyone or use 'all'.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper II (2023, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). ·

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