Placide Tempels 1906 – 1977
Placide Tempels (1906 – 1977) was a Belgian philosopher of the Contemporary era, associated with Postcolonial Philosophy and Christian Philosophy.
Placide Frans Tempels was a Belgian Franciscan missionary in the Belgian Congo and the author of Bantu Philosophy, published in 1945, the first book to argue at length that the peoples of central Africa possessed an articulated philosophical worldview rather than a merely primitive religion. Working among the Baluba of Katanga, he proposed that Bantu metaphysics is centered on the concept of vital force and that the moral life is ordered by the strengthening or weakening of force. His book provoked decades of debate, both as the founding text of what would be called ethnophilosophy and as the principal target of the critique of ethnophilosophy by Hountondji and others.
Key facts
- Nationality
- Belgian
- Era
- Contemporary
- Movements
- Postcolonial Philosophy, Christian Philosophy
Selected quotes
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Attributed to Placide Tempels:
“Bantu thought is centered on the concept of vital force.”
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Attributed to Placide Tempels:
“Being, for the Bantu, is force; to be is to be a force.”
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Attributed to Placide Tempels:
“To strengthen life is the highest moral aim.”
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Attributed to Placide Tempels:
“The community is the matrix in which each person grows.”
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Attributed to Placide Tempels:
“African thought has its own coherence, intelligible on its own terms.”
Placide Tempels by topic
Frequently asked about Placide Tempels
- When did Placide Tempels live?
- Placide Tempels was born in 1906 and died in 1977.
- Where was Placide Tempels from?
- Placide Tempels was a Belgian philosopher of the Contemporary era.
- What philosophical movements is Placide Tempels associated with?
- Placide Tempels was associated with Postcolonial Philosophy and Christian Philosophy.
- What was Placide Tempels known for?
- Placide Frans Tempels was a Belgian Franciscan missionary in the Belgian Congo and the author of Bantu Philosophy, published in 1945, the first book to argue at length that the peoples of central Africa possessed an articulated philosophical worldview rather than a merely primitive religion.
- How many quotes are attributed to Placide Tempels?
- There are 5 attributed quotations from Placide Tempels in the 1001Philosophers collection, organized by topic.