Arvind-Pal Singh Mandair, "Sikh Philosophy: Exploring Gurmat Concepts in a Decolonizing World" (Bloomsbury, 2022)
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What is Sikh philosophy and why should philosophers pay attention to it?
Welcome to the new books network.
Welcome to New Books in Philosophy, a channel on the New Books Network. I'm Malcolm Keating and today we'll be talking to Arvind Mander, author of Sikh Philosophy, Exploring Gormut Concepts in a Decolonizing World, published in twenty twenty two by Bloomsbury Academic Philosophy. Welcome to New Books in Philosophy, Arvind.
Thank you, great to be here.
Great. Well, let's dive in. Your book is an introduction to Sikh philosophy. And listeners may be familiar with what's often called Sikhism and conceive of it as a religion and not a philosophy. But your book uh not only complicates these concepts and categories, but it also presents uh Sikh ideas as philosophical. So for our listeners who may be unfamiliar With uh Sikh philosophy. Can you start by introducing some of the main reasons that you think philosophy is a discipline, ought to be interested in it? Uh maybe you can talk about some of its main commitments, some of the concepts it grapples with. Just a big picture intro for us.
Yeah, sure. Um So Sikhism was uh constructed uh over in the nineteenth century, uh through the twentieth century primarily as a religion, so people know it. mostly as kind of one of the five main world religions, um much less is known about its kind of philosophical impulse. Um but those impulses are definitely there in the primary sources and so um there is a An additional literature uh along with the uh what might one might call the construction of religion literature, the theological literature. Which is essentially philosophical. Um And it comes from The emphasis in sick life. Uh um on the notion of vijar, which essentially means to ponder, to reflect Um and the Sikh teachings themselves um inspire philosophical thinking even if they are not.
what we might regard uh as as philosophical in in the kind of formal sense, in the sense that we understand uh the discipline. Um But you can pull out just about everything that is covered in most uh philosophy courses. It has a vision of life, it speaks to the nature of reality, it speaks definitely to the nature of the self. Um there is an implicit theory of knowledge there, if not a formal one. Um you have to look for it, um and there is a way of getting to it. one might argue that there is a psychologic. Uh in fact the very word for the teachings of the Siddhurus um Is Gurmat, which is one of the it's in the subtitle of the book, and it literally means the teaching or the logic of the Guru. Yeah, it can also mean
A Guru mind Um other other it has sort of a whole lot of other connotations as well. It uh it's very similar to um when we talk about Buddha nature. Buddha mind. Uh, so that's one way in which m um you might want to kind of think about the term Goodmuth itself. And Goodmut is the axial term. in the primary sources in the six scriptures. And pretty much the term that um defines the coherence and identity of the community as well as its philosophical teachings. That's that's the term that you keep coming back to, uh, essentially. And Gourmat um uh y you can argue has an ontology. It's it it is a logic in itself. Um uh there is a a very strong Um Reflection on death? on the nature of time. uh on on ethics as well. But again
They're not written in or composed in a formally philosophical sense. They are these are poetic writings written to music. Um, which makes them interesting. They're they're meant for uh practice, um so they're very much uh embedded into the Sikh way of life. Um so there is a lot there for philosophy and and in fact that's one of the reasons why it philosophical literature has developed. Uh certainly in the modern period in the early twentieth century, um And yeah, we can talk about that.
Okay.
Definitely we'll we'll definitely get into that. Let's take a step back and I wanna ask you, how did you come to be interested in Sikh philosophy and to write this particular book?
That's a long question to answer. I have a long winded answer to that and I sh Or I can give you a short one, basically.
Whichever you want, we've got time.
Okay.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is Sikh philosophy and why should philosophers pay attention to it?
0:01–7:34
2
How did Sikh philosophy emerge historically and what role did colonial and nationalist forces play?
7:34–15:40
3
What is Gurmat (the Guru’s logic) and how does it function as an axial concept in Sikh thought?
15:40–23:23
4
How does Guru Nanak’s experience of ego‑death reshape concepts of self, knowledge and language?
23:23–31:24
5
In what way does Sikh philosophy treat consciousness, ontology and epistemology as a single plane?
31:24–39:35
6
Why does Sikh thought reject fear of death and how are death, death‑lessness and rebirth interconnected?
39:35–47:37
7
How does Sikh philosophy address contemporary bio‑ethical issues such as the environment, reproductive ethics and euthanasia?
47:37–56:26
8
What future projects is the author pursuing and how do they extend the decolonial, cross‑cultural agenda of Sikh philosophy?
56:26–1:04:41
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