conversation addendum

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I love talking to people who know a lot more about the subject than I do. This often saves you self-study, visiting a library or a corresponding lecture.

Recently, among many other things, we also talked about “the three filters”, which a professor is always happy to recommend his students to use.

As a result, I found a version of these three filters in my notes that might make things a little easier for the students to understand.

I do not know the author of this short story, and it has also been circulating on the World Wide Web for several years without naming it.

The triple filter test

One day the great philosopher Socrates 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 filters?" asked the acquaintance.

"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."

"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 although 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 hero in such high esteem.

It also explains why he never found out that Plateau was shagging his wife.

Anon

I first published the above three-filter test on May 15, 2011 on one of my other websites.

By the way, my interlocutor, who initiated this addendum, attaches great importance to the fact that "his" filter is logically negated and that all three criteria must therefore be fulfilled for him.


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