Choose the word most similar in meaning to the word 'doctrine', as used in the passage.

Directions: Read the following passage carefully and select the most suitable answer according to the underlined word per corresponding number in the passage.

There is a fallacious mode of presenting the attainment of happiness; namely, that happiness is best secured by not being aimed at. We should be aiming always at something else. When examined closely, the doctrine resolves itself into a kind of paradox. All sorts of ambiguities come up when we attempt to follow it to its consequences.

We might ask, first, whether there is any other object of pursuit in the same predicament - wealth, health, knowledge, fame, power. These are a means or instruments of happiness, if not happiness itself. Should we, then, in the case of each, avoid aiming straight at the goal? Should we look askance in some other direction