In ancient Greece, from 469 BC to 399 BC, lived Socrates, a philosopher who was well known and widely respected for his wisdom.<br /><br />One day the great philosopher came upon an acquaintance who said excitedly, "Socrates, do you know what I just heard about one of your students?"<br /><br />"Wait a moment," Socrates replied. "Before telling me anything I'd like you to pass a little test. It's called the Triple Filter Test."<br /><br />"Triple filter?"<br /><br />"That's right," Socrates continued "Before you tell to me about my student, it might be a good idea to take a moment and filter what you're going to say.<br /><br />The first filter is 'Truth'. Are you absolutely sure that what you are about to tell me is true?"<br /><br />"No," the acquaintance said, "actually I just heard about it and . . ."<br /><br />"All right," said Socrates. "So you don't really know if it's true or not?<br /><br />Now let's try the second filter, the filter of 'Goodness'. Is what you are about to tell me about my student something good?"<br /><br />"No, on the contrary . . ."<br /><br />"So," Socrates continued, "you want to tell me something bad about my student, 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 student going to be useful to me?"<br /><br />"No,not really."<br /><br />"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?"<br /><br />This is why Socrates was a great philosopher and held in such high esteem.<br /><br />It also explains why he never found out that Plato was doin' his wife.
