glossary of terms used by frithjof schuon - Sophia Perennis

total since this form is a symbol and is therefore something of what it has to
communicate. [SW, Orthodoxy and Intellectuality]
Doctrine (exoteric / esoteric): A doctrine or a Path is exoteric to the degree that it is
obliged to take account of individualism – which is the fruit not so much of passion itself
as of the hold exerted by passion upon thought – and to veil the equation of Intellect and
Self under a mythological and moral imagery, irrespective of whether a historical element
is combined with that imagery or not; and a doctrine is esoteric to the degree that it
communicates the very essence of our universal position, our situation between
nothingness and Infinity. Esoterism is concerned with the nature of things and not merely
with our human eschatology; it views the Universe not from the human standpoint but
from the “standpoint” of God. [LS, Gnosis, Language of the Self]
Doctrine (limitation): A doctrinal limitation does not always denote a corresponding
intellectual limitation since it can be situated on the level of mental articulation and not
on that of pure intellection. [FSR, Paradoxes of Spiritual Expression]
Doctrine (quintessence): When one speaks of doctrinal “quintessence,” this may mean
one of two things: firstly, the loftiest and subtlest part of a doctrine, and it is in this sense
that Sufis distinguish between the “husk” (qishr) and the “marrow” (lubb); and secondly,
an integral doctrine envisaged in respect of its fundamental and necessary nature, and
thus leaving aside all outward trappings and all superstructure. [SVQ, Preface]
Doctrine (truth): It is sometimes said that no doctrine is entirely wrong and that there is
truth in everything; but this is altogether false, because, while fundamental – and thus
decisive – truths can neutralize any minor errors in a doctrine, minor truths are valueless
within the framework of a major error; this is why one must never glorify an error for
having taught us some truth or other, nor look for truth in errors on the pretext that truth
is everywhere the same – for there are important nuances here – and above all one must
not reject a fundamental and comprehensive truth because of a minor error that may
happen to accompany it. [CI, Dilemmas of Moslem Scholasticism]
Dogmatism: Dogmatism is characterized by the fact that it attributes an absolute scope
and an exclusive sense to a particular point of view or aspect. [UI, Islam]
Dogmatism as such does not consist in the mere enunciation of an idea, that is to say, in
the fact of giving form to a spiritual intuition, but rather in an interpretation that, instead
of rejoining the formless and total Truth after taking as its starting point one of the forms
of that Truth, results in a sort of paralysis of this form by denying its intellectual
potentialities and by attributing to it an absoluteness that only the formless and total Truth
itself can possess. [TUR, Conceptual Dimensions]
Dogmatism / Empiricism: A few words must be said here on the antinomy between
dogmatism and empiricism: the empiricist error consists not in the belief that experiment
has a certain utility, which is obvious, but in thinking that there is a common measure
between principial knowledge and experiment, and in attributing to the latter an absolute
value, whereas in fact it can only have a bearing on modes, never on the very principles
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