In ancient Greece, Socrates was
reputed to hold knowledge in high esteem. One day an acquaintance met the great
philosopher and said, “Do you know what I just heard about your friend?”
“Hold on a minute”, Socrates
replied. “Before telling me anything I’d like you to pass a little test. It’s
called the Triple Filter Test.”
“Triple filter?”
“That’s right”, Socrates continued.
“Before you talk to me about my friend, it might be a good idea to take a
moment and filter what you’re going to say. That’s why I call it the triple
filter test. The first filter is Truth. Have you made absolutely sure that what
you are about to tell me is true?”
“No,” the man said, “Actually I
just heard about it and …”
“All right”, said Socrates. “So you
don’t really know if it’s true or not. Now let’s try the second filter, the
filter of Goodness. Is what you are about to tell me about my friend something
good?”
“No, on the contrary.”
“So”, Socrates continued, “you want
to tell me something bad about him, but you’re not certain it’s true. You may
still pass the test though, because there’s one filter left: The filter of
Usefulness. Is what you want to tell me about my friend going to be useful to
me?”
“No, not really.”
“Well”, concluded Socrates, “if
what you want to tell me is neither true nor good nor even useful, why tell it
to me at all?”
Author Unknown
Submitted by Amoda
Submitted by Amoda
