The Argument And The Development Of The Native African Philosophy

With its unique historical background and logical clue,the emergence and development of African philosophy began with revolt against the Eurocentric ideas among European intelligentsia.It rebutted the judgement that African had no Philosophy,such as the views of Hegel.On the contrary,it believed that there were Philosophy existing in Africa in deed.A churchman from Belgium named Temples published Bantu Philosophy and this book was seen as a proof to a certain extent that African Philosophy exists.Temples did contribute a lot,but unfortunately,he did not answer the question what African philosophy should be.Later,Ethnophilosophy continued to do research about this.Thus,it was seen as the beginning of controvery around what was African Philosophy.Different schools had been produced,they are Ethnophilosophy,Professional Philosophy,Philosophic Sagacity and Hermeneutics and other schools.The Ethnophilosophy took the world outlook,beliefs as African philosophy,which has been criticized by Professional philosophy.Professional philosophy holds that Ethnophilosophy is not philosophy,it lacked critical and independent thinking.They corrected the deficiency of Ethnophilosophy,but was lost in their own trap.They made the western philosophy uncritically to be universal,as is a common philosophy,their actions also caused a lot of problems.The Philosophic Sagacity was in the race between Ethnophilosophy and Professional Philosophy,they selected a middle position.They thought philosophy was the essence of wisdom,and wisdom owned its independence and reflection.In the traditional society in Africa existed such "wisdom".However,these three schools all had their own disadvantages.That is,they either focused on Africa's past,or focused on formalistic philosophy,while ignoring the present and future of Africa.In order to deal with this problem,Hermeneutics began to appear in Africa.They more concerned about the difficulties and problems at present in Africa and the future of Africa.Africa and African philosophy at the time were in a decolonization process.Not only the continent of Africa to but also African culture,African philosophy thought should be liberated from the Western influence.This article first explains and analyzes the background that Africa has no philosophy,and what is philosophy around Africa,then analyzes and criticies Ethnophilosophy,Professional philosophy,Philosophy Sagacity and Hermeneutics.Finally,it makes a evaluation and prospect on the development of African Philosophy.