Category:
C'est la Vie
SOCRATES' LOGIC
In
ancient Greece,
Socrates was reputed to hold knowledge in high
esteem. One day an acquaintance met the great philosopher and said:
"Socrates, 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. 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?"
This
is why Socrates was a great philosopher and held in
such high esteem. It also explains why he never found out his best friend was
screwing his wife.