Exoteric

Exoteric refers to knowledge that is outside of and independent from anyone's experience and can be ascertained by anyone. It is distinguished from esoteric knowledge. Exoteric relates to "external reality" as opposed to one's own thoughts or feelings. It is knowledge that is "public" as opposed to secretive or cabalistic. It is not required that exoteric knowledge come easily or automatically, but it should be referenceable or reproducible.

Philosophical context

Most philosophical and religious belief systems presume that reality must be independent of what an individual makes of it. However, even before the days of Plato, a prominent alternate theory of knowledge insisted that the perceived outside reality is merely an internal fabrication of the observer and that it has no existence or substance outside the imagination of the observer. Thus, the reality we interact with is therefore merely a consensus we have reached; if we choose to imagine it otherwise, it will change. From this, one may conclude that anything labeled as "exoteric" is in fact "esoteric". When taken to its logical extremes, the result is solipsism, the notion that it's "all in our heads".

The Japanese master swordsmater Miyamoto Musashi, for example, in his The Book of Five Rings, noted that when he teaches people martial arts, "since [he] generally makes them learn such things as have actual relevance to addressing [deeper principles] , there is no such thing as a distinction between the esoteric and the exoteric." [Miyamoto Musashi. The Book of Five Rings. Translated by Thomas Cleary. Shambhala Library. Boston & London. 2003. p. 86.]

Religious context

The term "exoteric" is mostly used in conjunction with religions, in which the teachings shift the believer's focus away from the exploration of the inner self and towards the adherence to rules, laws and an individual God. The term "exoteric" may also reflect the notion of a divine identity outside and different from the identity of a human, whereas the esoteric notion claims that the divine is to be discovered within the human identity. One step further, the pantheistic notion suggests that the divine and the material world is one and the same.

Other contexts

Exoteric also refers to knowledge that is outside the human perspective. For instance, "exoterically speaking, the human organism is highly organized matter, actively engaged in a fight against entropy. The human mind is a quality of the brain."

Etymology

The prefix 'exo' has Greek roots and means "outer".

See also

esoteric

References

External links

* [http://www.kheper.net/topics/esoteric_and_exoteric.htm Esoteric and Exoteric] An article on the use of these terms in mystic and occult literature