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?"
This is why Socrates was a great philosopher and
held in such high esteem
Source:http://lightworkers.org/blog/193879/triple-filter-test
Comments
An atheist was seated next to a little girl on an airplane and he turned to her and said, "Do you want to talk? Flights go quicker if you strike up a conversation with your fellow passenger."
The little girl, who had just started to read her book, replied to the total stranger, "What would you want to talk about?"
" Oh, I don't know," said the atheist. "How about why there is no God, or no Heaven or Hell, or no life after death?" as he smiled smugly.
"OK," she said. "Those could be interesting topics but let me ask you a question first. A horse, a cow, and a deer all eat the same stuff - grass. Yet a deer excretes little pellets, while a cow turns out a flat patty, but a horse produces clumps. Why do you suppose that is?"
The atheist, visibly surprised by the little girl's intelligence, thinks about it and says, "Hmmm, I have no idea." To which the little girl replies, "Do you really feel qualified to discuss why there is no God, or no Heaven or Hell, or no life after death, when you don't know crap?" And then she went back to reading her book.