UPSC EPFO APFC 2023 · Question 7
Question 7 of the UPSC EPFO APFC Recruitment Test 2023 (General Studies) (2 July 2023). Try it first, then open the answer and explanation.
Choose the word or phrase closest in meaning to the underlined word "disinterested". The judgment of beauty is based on the human capacity for "disinterested" pleasure in the natural world.
- Indifference
- Free of all self-interest
- Not caring for something
- Extremely focused
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Answer: (2) Free of all self-interest
Disinterested means impartial: not influenced by personal advantage or any wish to own or use the thing. The sentence echoes Kant's idea in aesthetics that pleasure in beauty is "disinterested", enjoyed for its own sake and not because we want or gain anything from the object. The trap is to confuse "disinterested" with "uninterested", which means indifferent or not caring (options 1 and 3). A disinterested judge is fair, not bored. "Extremely focused" has no connection with the word.