In ancient Greece (469 - 399 BC), Socrates was widely lauded for his wisdom. One day the great philosopher came upon an acquaintance who ran up to him excitedly and said, "Socrates, do you know what I just heard about one of your students?"
"Wait a moment," Socrates replied. "Before you tell me 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 student let's take a moment to 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..."
"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 student something good?"
"No, on the contrary..."
"So," Socrates continued, "you want to tell me something bad about him, even though you're not certain it's true?"
The man shrugged, a little embarrassed.
Socrates continued. "You may still pass the test though, because there is a third filter-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?"
The man was defeated and ashamed.
This is the reason Socrates was a great philosopher and held in such high esteem.
It also explains why he never found out that Plato was shagging his wife.
10 comments:
Marked with an X on a map in a philosophy department -> "Why Are You Here?"
Oh yeah right, let's all go visit a site about laser hair removal.
These auto-spamments are so daft. Do they honestly think they work?
How small do you think this smallman is? Tiny, or maybe just below average?
Sadly, I really don't have any laser-hairs to permanently remove (nor inclination to go to Maryland).
I wonder what kind of topic is similar to hair removal - maybe they cleverly operate a hair transplant system, thus benefiting two-fold. These guys are clearly on the ball.
It would have been entertaining if smallman had been spruiking penis enlargement pills...
I really find hairy bikinis really offputting.
Well I guess I now have fallen victim to some terrifying Super-Mega-Hyper-SPAM.
It may work like a trail of spam-crumbs - the first vulture springs forth and plants the initial morsel of SPAM which in turn draws the rest of the foul creatures forth, each depositing further excrement on their festering pile of turd.
It's really stinking up the place - I need a way to offload it - A foolish Monty Python fan perhaps?
You can turn on Word Verification. Or you can make a spam trap like Radioactive Jam has done:
Radioactive Jam
Take a look at the top post. It's a very clever trick and I wish I had the brains to think of such things (he's just created a null post with a date set in the future).
Or you can leave it as it is and we can keep on poking fun at the morons.
Oh, now I REALLY need to go check out discount golf equipment. WHAT? I mean, WHAT?
Dear Lui,
Since reading your blog I have less bikini hair, some great cheap golfing equipment, a new laptop, a better sex life and some great ideas for my upcoming outside wedding.
How can I ever thank you?
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