Tempels’s personhood idea is communitarian rather than a force thesis

Evidence

What is not emphasized enough is the role that Tempels played as a forerunner to this communitarian view. In my previous work I have argued against the characterization of his approach as a “force” thesis (Mantolino 2014). My position has been that, ultimately, Tempels’s view of personhood is communitarian as it prioritizes the importance of the community in the formation, maintenance and flourishing of “force”. … Tempels even goes further to argue that there is a gradient for the status or standing of each individual’s personhood. One’s standing on that gradient is determined by her “force”, but the intensity of “force” is made real through the intensity of one’s relationships. — Frans Dokman, Beyond Bantu Philosophy_…, 437

Categorization

• XREF: This reinterpretation recasts the familiar ‘force’ tag on Tempels — connects to debates over whether ethnophilosophy misread Bantu concepts. — connects to: Commodification critiques became productive once reframed as questions of personhood — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 255