Tempels helped initiate the debate over whether African philosophy exists

Evidence

In this period of time, individuals had to fall within the category of thinkers to be counted among the philosophers or intellectuals of their time. It is in this framework that we can read and appreciate without prejudice the Bantu philosophical work of Placide Tempels. Bearing this premise in mind, we can count Tempels among the scholars who contributed to the general birth of African Philosophy as well as the starting point of the debate regarding whether or not there is any African philosophy at all. — Frans Dokman, Beyond Bantu Philosophy_…, 208

Categorization

• XREF: Situates Tempels as the origin point of the ongoing ‘is there African philosophy?’ debate, central to the reader’s study of Bantu philosophy. — connects to: Tempels’s Bantu Philosophy challenged colonial assumptions that Africans could not think logically. — Frans Dokman, Beyond Bantu Philosophy_…, 69; Colonial caricature of Africa shaped both Tempels and Oruka as intellectual revolt; Tempels’s evangelization aim made him a philosopher of religion. (+13 more)
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Frans Dokman, Beyond Bantu Philosophy_…, 208

Broader Connections

• Tempels first raised whether an African ontology exists #expands (0.85)
• Canonical African philosophy emerged largely in response to Tempels’s provocation #corroborates (0.80) — Frans Dokman, Beyond Bantu Philosophy_…, 346
• Tempels’s text shaped African philosophy’s identity despite its errors #expands (0.70)