Tuesday 3 June 2008

Socrates' Triple Filter Test

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?"

"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." "Triple filter?" questioned the young man.

That's right," Socrates continued, "Before you talk to me about my student, 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 ...''

"Ah right," said Socrates. "So you don't really know if it's true or not - Now let's try the second filter, the 2nd filter of Goodness. Is what you are about to tell me about my student 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 student 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?"


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

嗯,很多时候我们还没弄清楚状况就有了先入为主的想法,那是对于当事人很不公平的。更多时候,我们应该好好地想想我们要传出去的话是否是真实的,如果没查证,还是先不要胡乱将谣言说成像真的似的。

记住了哦!

^_^g

No comments: