A Philosophical Review on The Concepts of Eternal Wisdom and Worldlıness in Frithjof Schuon’s Thought

Throughout human history, the quest for truth has not been confined solely to the realm of reason.

Man's relationship with the spiritual and the divine has been shaped within the framework of

tradition-based knowledge and revelation. Frithjof Schuon's ideas offer important clues for

understanding the rupture experienced by humanity in its search for truth in the modern world,

where the relationship with divine knowledge based on tradition has been destroyed. In this

context, the concept of eternal wisdom lies at the heart of Schuon's ideas. On the one hand, Schuon

highlights the support of eternal wisdom in man's spiritual journey, while on the other hand, he

attempts to explain the obstacles that secularisation presents to this process. According to Schuon,

contemporary man, shaped by the conceptual framework of modernism, has severed his

connection with the sacred. This disconnection has led to alienation both on an individual and

societal level, causing an existential crisis. According to him, human nature requires contact with

the transcendent. However with modernity, this contact has weakened and humans have become

limited to the material, sensory, and temporary. Schuon states that alienation and crises began

both individually and socially when man became estranged from the spiritual and was condemned

to the worldly. Modern thought lacks the power to produce solutions to these alienations and

crises. Therefore, Schuon argues that spiritual disciplines rooted in metaphysical traditions can

provide solutions to the problems of individuals and society. According to him, when a person

builds a life based on traditional teachings, both their inner world will be illuminated and their

spiritual journey will be facilitated. Schuon argues that, based on the theses of mystical thought on

the one hand and the tenets of traditionalist understanding on the other, it is possible to counter

the negative effects of secularization, and that this can only be done within the framework of

eternal wisdom. This study aims to examine, from a philosophical perspective, how the concepts of

eternal wisdom and worldliness are shaped within opposing structures in Frithjof Schuon's

thought, the effects of these concepts on humans and society, and how they explain the

epistemological-ontological fractures of the modern world. Therefore, the philosophical

background of these concepts, which form the basis of Schuon's thought, is examined in detail, and

the solutions the thinker offers to these problems are discussed in historical and contemporary

contexts. Based on analytical methods and conceptual analysis, the historical and philosophical

origins of the concepts of eternal wisdom and worldliness are examined, followed by Schuon's

original interpretations and proposed solutions to the problems. In this context, Schuon's

fundamental ideas have been analyzed in their most general sense and interpreted in depth from a

hermeneutic perspective. However, these interpretations strive not to stray from the systematic

coherence of meaning presented by the thinker. The process of deep interpretation and conceptual

analysis that we methodologically follow in this study has progressed with due consideration for

the internal consistency and conceptual patterns in Schuon's thoughts.