Placide Temple

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Placide Frans Tempels (born February 18, 1906 in Berlaar , Belgium , † October 9, 1977 there ) was a Belgian missionary. He became famous for his writing La philosophie bantoue in 1945.

Life

Born as Frans Tempels, he was given the name Placide when he entered the Franciscan order at the age of 18 . After being ordained a priest in 1930, he taught in Belgium for three years before being called to the Belgian Congo (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo ) in 1933. He stayed there for 29 years. His stay was only interrupted by two short trips to Belgium . In April 1962 he finally returned to live in the Franciscan monastery in Berlaar, where he died in 1977.

Bantu philosophy

Although he was neither African nor philosopher, Tempels had a great influence on African philosophy , through the publication of his work La philosophie bantoue in 1945 (German 1956: Bantu philosophy. Ontology and ethics ). This work of ethnophilosophy has been criticized, e.g. a. by Paulin Hountondji , Aimé Césaire , Kwame Anthony Appiah , Kwasi Wiredu and Peter Bodunrin . However, many also agreed (partially or fully, implicitly or explicitly) to the ideas or ideologies he conveyed, for example Alexis Kagame . Through this work, Tempels himself claimed to have found a key to understanding “primitive” thinking.

His Bantu philosophy broadly states the following:

  1. There is a collective Bantu philosophy that is "once and for all inherent in the eternal immutable soul of the African".
  2. (Life) strength and being are one and the same.
  3. The dynamic (reality of) Bantu philosophy contrasts with the static (reality of) European philosophy.
  4. The interaction between God and man takes place according to unchangeable laws.
  5. The hierarchy of being is a hierarchy of the ruling forces: God - creator of the clan - ancestors - ancestors of the tribes (as mediator of the forces of the founding fathers) - animals - plants - minerals

reception

Paulin Hountondji criticized Temple's theoretical approach. According to Hountondji, this served both the rehabilitation of African culture and Lévy-Bruhl's thesis . The success of Tempels' literary work is understandable, because he fulfills various expectations with his writing:

  1. A definitive philosophy serves the African nationalist as an ideology to which he can passionately indulge.
  2. A solid doctrine openly serves colonial apologetic Africanists and ethnologists (e.g. Bachelard) as the story of their own intellectual childhood.
  3. A simplified worldview serves conventional ethnographers and Catholic missionaries to confirm the inferiority of the "exotic" cultures

It is also important to note:

  • The Thomism in the work shows that it is not the philosophy of the Bantu, but the temple's own philosophy.
  • This pseudophilosophy of world views removes the object of imperial rulership discourse from having a say.
  • A popular, ideological use of "philosophy" stands in contrast to actual philosophy in the strict, theoretical use of the word.

Aimé Césaire exercised political criticism ( Discours sur le colonialisme , 1950) by pointing out the grave consequences of such a pared-down African philosophy. However, he implicitly accepted the theoretical approach of ethnophilosophy , which states that there is indeed a spontaneous, collective Bantu philosophy.

Alexis Kagame (priest in Rwanda ) also claimed the existence of a collective Bantu philosophy. However, in contrast to Placide Temple, it restricted the claim to the Rwanda region and neighboring countries. In order to give plausibility to the idea of ​​an immutable, eternal system of thought, he derived the ontology from the grammatical structure of Kinyarwanda . According to Kagame, theoretical thinking is conditional in one's mother tongue; a different mother tongue would therefore require a completely different way of thinking. Kagame explicitly presented his work as a monograph , but still said the formal logic is the same in all cultures. Kagame describes power as being in motion. Being at rest and being in motion are simply two aspects of the same being.

See also

literature

  • Placide Temple: Bantu Philosophy. Ontology and ethics. 1956

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Temple, Placide
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Temple, Placide Frans
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Belgian missionary
DATE OF BIRTH February 18, 1906
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlaar , Belgium
DATE OF DEATH October 9, 1977
Place of death Berlaar , Belgium