ABSTRACT
The methodological premise of the book, which is shared by many in Africa, is the assumption that there are in African societies unspoken philosophical thoughts that are experienced daily and that control the entire existence of the African communities. The task is then to have these philosophical thoughts clearly expressed by a process that will consist in reconstructing its logical consistency. The principle of such a criticism will be to focus on what appears to be a mix of genres, a regrettable confusion between philosophy and ethnology that consists of theorizing on ethnological data that have been too hastily promoted to the status of philosophical concepts. Thus, according to Hountondji, by expanding the concept of philosophy to tales, myths, cosmologies, and other cosmogonies, ethno-philosophy disqualifies itself both from a methodological point of view and from its contents.
