Principle (Dogma) - Stoic Terminology

     The Greek word dogma, which Needleman and Piazza translate as "principle," "guiding-principle," "life-principle," or "rules of living" rather than using the English loanword "dogma," has a clearly different connotation in the Greek of Marcus Aurelius from that in modern English. They comment: "For the Greeks (and many Christians) however, [dogma] is not a rigid law to be accepted and followed blindly. Rather, a dogma is a concept which is meant to be meditated upon and realized or actualized in one's life, the value of which is learned through experience and adherence."