Tempels, preceding Mbiti and Menkiti, first grounded personhood in community within African philosophy

Evidence

As already stated, the communitarian view has come to be associated with Mbiti and Menkiti. However, there is one instance where Didier Kaphagawani (2006) insists that the origins of this view are to be found in Tempels’s work. I find Kaphagawani’s claim plausible as Tempels, who follows Stefano Kaoze’s Bantu Psychology, is the first to rely on this sort of framework to develop a philosophical conception. While Tempels’s usage of “force” may detract his reader from seeing the thoroughgoing nature of his communitarian view, Tempels is actually the first thinker, in African philosophy at least, to make the status of a person dependent on the community. — Frans Dokman, Beyond Bantu Philosophy_…, 438

Categorization

• XREF: Corrects the standard citation practice that pairs communitarianism with Mbiti/Menkiti, connecting to wider debates on the genealogy of the communitarian thesis in African philosophy.