the world view of mainstream [Ashkenazic] Torah.

Hashkafa is the word used for the world view of mainstream [Ashkenazic] Torah. It has to do with principles of faith for sure, but it is much wider than that. It means, in essence, the philosophy of Torah, and the word in itself implies that the Torah has it own unique philosophy. We, however, do find that people carry into the Torah their own philosophies that they pick up elsewhere, and then claim that their philosophy is that of the Torah.- but this is not intellectually honest. For me, personally, one of the advantages that I gained by learning Musar [ethical books of Torah written during the Middle Ages] is that it introduced me to the Philosophy of the Torah in a straightforward way before I had heard any alternative variations. But Musar does this job in a soft way and only indirectly. Recently, in the process of learning Tractate Adodah Zara, it seemed relevant to open up the Rambam concerning the actual principles of Torah as he explains them in Hilchot Teshuva. [There he goes into greater depth than he does in the famous commentary to the Mishna in Chapter Cheleck in Sanhedrin].