Socrates - 3 filters

In ancient Greece, Socrates was reputed to hold knowledge in high esteem.

One day an acquaintance met the great philosopher and said,

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"Do you know what I just heard about your friend?"
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"Hold on a minute," Socrates replied. "Before telling me anything I'd like you to pass a little test.

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It"s called the Three Filters Test."
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"Three Filters?"

"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.

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That's why I call it the Three Filters Test.
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The first filter is Truth.

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Have you made absolutely sure that what you are about to tell me is true?"

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"No," the man said, "actually I just heard about it and..."

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"All right," said Socrates. "So you don't really know if it"s true or not.

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Now let"s try the second filter, the filter of goodness.

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Is what you are about to tell me about my friend something good?"

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"No, on the contrary..."

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"So," Socrates continued, "you want to tell me something bad about him, but you're not certain it"s true.

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You may still pass the test though, because there's one filter left: the filter of usefulness.

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Is what you want to tell me about my friend going to be useful to me?"

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"No, not really."

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"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?"

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This is why Socrates was a great philosopher & held in such high esteem.

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