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 you talk to me about my
friend, it might be 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?”
“Well, 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?”
“Umm, no, on the contrary.”
“So,” Socrates continued, “you want to tell me something bad about my
friend, 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?”
[Original source unknown. Thanks to Adam for the forward. Worth thinking
about!]
~~
Dr Bob Griffin, www.grif.net
1 cross + 3 nails = 4 given