Placide Tempels’ Bantu Philosophy founded a tradition now critiqued as ethno-philosophy

Evidence

Bantu Philosophy of this Belgian missionary is today still considered by certain African philosophers as a classic of “African philosophy”. In effect it is an ethnological work pretending to be philosophical or simply, if I am allowed to use the neologism, an ethno-philosophical work. It merits some interest for the fact that certain African philosophers referred to it in their attempt to re-construct a specifically African “philosophy” in the wake of the Belgian writer. In reality Bantu Philosophy has opened the way to all the successive analysis. Thanks to the interpretation of customs and traditions, proverbs and institutions – in other words, thanks to the cultural life of the African people – these analyses constructed a particular kind of Weltanschauung, a specific vision of the world, presumed to be common to all Africans, subject to African history and social changes and considered, furthermore, as a philosophy. — Frans Dokman, Beyond Bantu Philosophy_…, 281

Categorization

• DEFINE: Introduces the contested term ethno-philosophy for Tempels’ work, the central concept anchoring this book’s whole inquiry.
• XREF: connects to: Tempels’ Bantu Philosophy remains seminal to African philosophy despite its missionary origins — Frans Dokman, Beyond Bantu Philosophy_…, 488; Placide Tempels originated the claim that Africans have a philosophy — Frans Dokman, Beyond Bantu Philosophy_…, 501
• yield-rescued: below the book’s yield-target cutoff, included anyway for connecting to: Tempels’ Bantu Philosophy remains seminal to African philosophy despite its missionary origins — Frans Dokman, Beyond Bantu Philosophy_…, 488; Placide Tempels originated the claim that Africans have a philosophy — Frans Dokman, Beyond Bantu Philosophy_…, 501