From the book
Stobaeus, Volume I
John Stobaeus · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordDogma is a settled view, conviction, or doctrine.
- In StobaeusThe anonymous saying distinguishes necessity and conviction from love as motives toward goodness, praising love for bringing virtue to completion.
- In this edition“Conviction” conveys the practical role; “doctrine” suits an articulated teaching.
- A place to beginConviction is one motive toward goodness, alongside necessity and love.
- English renderings
- conviction; settled opinion; doctrine
Meaning
Dogma is a settled view, conviction, or doctrine. It need not mean an unquestionable religious dogma in the modern sense.
Use in the book
The anonymous saying distinguishes necessity and conviction from love as motives toward goodness, praising love for bringing virtue to completion. Dogma concerns a belief capable of directing conduct. The passage does not identify a particular school’s formal creed.
Places to read
- I.9.7Conviction is one motive toward goodness, alongside necessity and love.
Translation in this edition
“Conviction” conveys the practical role; “doctrine” suits an articulated teaching.
Source note
Wachsmuth, volume I, printed pp. 113. The edition prints anonymous prose and rejects an earlier attempt to arrange the sentence as tragic verse.