[citation needed] In February 1957, he began his higher education in his fourth year at the École Normale d’Instituteurs in Caen in the middle of the second trimester.
In April, he enrolled in the Faculty of Letters and Humanities at the University of Caen with special authorization from the Minister of National Education (due to the delay).
[citation needed] Between 1961 and 1962, Marcien Towa completed a teaching internship and taught in several Parisian high schools (Louis-le-Grand, Molière, among others).
[citation needed] On February 4, 1969, Marcien Towa defended his Doctorate in Philosophy at the Sorbonne under the supervision of Lucien Goldmann with the dissertation "Qu’est-ce que la Négritude?"
In July 1977, Marcien Towa defended his State Doctorate in Philosophy under the direction of Paul Ricœur (following the unfortunate passing of Lucien Goldmann), with a dissertation titled "Identité et Transcendance.
Through this "restrictive" vision of the term "think," Towa situates himself in the philosophical tradition initiated by Descartes and emphasizes the critical aspect of philosophy.
He became famous in this field by criticizing the Senegalese President Léopold Sédar Senghor, whom he accused of distorting the revolutionary dimension of the Negritude movement to the point of aligning it with colonialism.
According to Marcien Towa, Senghorian Negritude opposes the very foundations of the movement because its goal is to neutralize the Black person, making them accept reality as it is.
[9] By the term "ethno-philosophy," Marcien Towa refers to a line of thought stemming from the desire of both Africans and non-Africans to bring forth a cultural expression from the past to oppose Western imperialism and racism.
This is a similar critique to that offered by Youssouph Mbargane Guissé, who describes Towa's definition of philosophy in Essai sur la problématique philosophique dans l'Afrique actuelle as a "delirium of idealism."
The author believes this attitude can be linked to Towa's 1971 essay, where he directs his reflection in such a way that it denies the possibility of philosophy within the traditional African world.
This critique primarily concerns the conceptual foundations of Marcien Towa's thought, especially the geo-ideological reference point from which he formulates his definition of philosophy.
From his Essai sur la problématique philosophique dans l’Afrique actuelle, Towa has advocated finding the definition of philosophy in Europe, asserting that the concept is a Western property.
Yai responds by saying that "Towa's propositions ultimately appear as the very prototype of the hymn to assimilation to which the philosophism[18]-scientism of all speculative philosophy necessarily leads."
According to him, the critique of "alienation" accompanying other criticisms of "Westernization" and "negation of black cultures" are merely the results of a clumsy reading of Towa's philosophy.
[20]" Invoking the distinction Towa makes between industrial civilization and Western culture,[21] Charles Romain Mbélé argues that the critique of pro-Western extroversion is a misreading.
[24] According to Bidima, such a concept of "pure, innocent, immaculate, triumphant, and reassuring science for Blacks[25]" is incompatible with the critical dimension of Towa's philosophy, which regresses to the 19th century by displaying a "reflex of 19th-century positivism[26]."
The first book, La philosophie camerounaise à l’ère du soupçon : le cas Towa, is the work of a collaboration between Basile-Juléat Fouda and Sindjoun-Pokam.
Sindjoun-Pokam identifies a "contradiction" in Towa between Essai sur la problématique philosophique dans l’Afrique actuelle and L’idée d’une philosophie négro-africaine.
The authors write that "In his book Essai sur la problématique philosophique dans l’Afrique actuelle,[31] Towa sharply criticized the attempts to restore and reconstruct African philosophies," which explains why Towa's name appears (in a note, annexed to Hountondji's) in the section exposing negative answers to the question[32] "Does an African philosophy exist?"
and also in the section exposing positive answers to the same question, where the authors state that in Towa, there is "the final recognition of ... the existence of a deep philosophical tradition dating back to the highest antiquity.
In "Ideologies and Utopias,[36]" Towa accuses Hountondji of falling into "epistemologism," meaning the belief that philosophy is a neutral and ethereal occupation that has no impact on society since it is only concerned with the pursuit of truth, a concept understood as having no connection to concrete, determined reality.
This is essentially what Towa responds in 1979 to Jean Sablé, but especially to Manga Bihina, who "regrets" the lack of "a distinction, which, in [his] opinion, is crucial, between philosophy and ideology," meaning "between a free and disinterested search for truth and the representation of a supposed reality."
According to Manga Bihina, "there is a difference here that is not merely a detail," before noting that "one must truly be an acrobat to follow [Towa] in the identification you dare to establish between philosophy and ideology.
"[37] Marcien Towa essentially holds that politics is the stage for the expression of two mutually implicating fundamental concepts: power and freedom.
According to Towa: "African societies affected by the identity science can only overcome this crisis by becoming centers of conscious self-movement and transformation again, thus liquidating domination and oppression," in other words, by truly—politically—becoming free again.
The ultimate goal of this transcendence, that is, the appropriation of the other for our own purposes, would lead to an "approximate equality," "which alone can guarantee the conscious self-movement of peoples along with freedom in the choice of traditions."
[38] An essential element of this scheme is the possession of power; for Towa, as for Nkrumah and Marx before him, this involves the unity of the dominated, hence the idea of Pan-Africanism.
First, it concerns exclusively African countries, and second, it pertains solely to the political domain, whereas the first, general lesson was about understanding the concept of philosophy.
He asks, "In our world of imperialist superpowers, how can we claim even a somewhat real autonomy in any domain without acquiring enough power to resist any attempt at open or covert subjugation?