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Saturday, March 24, 2007

A Lesson from Socrates


Be sure to read all the way to the end..... it's worth it !

Next time someone starts to spread gossip, think of this: 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 m! oment 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.

9 comments:

Serendipity said...

Nice post n sound advice :)

Unknown said...

did u try this in b4 posting this post ???

Unknown said...

@bricktop
Socrates has opened my eyes and hope i ll follow this hereafter :)

Aditi said...

it was a nice post and i think if out of 100 readers, only 2 adopt it, it has done its job, at least some one is going to learn, and ur the first as you said....

Anonymous said...

dai naye ethu oru forward thane.... appadiye copy paste pannitiye da.....

Unknown said...

@umashankar
Forward a iruntha enna..nalla vishayam enga irunthalum eduthukalam thappu illa..

Anonymous said...

ayyo thalaiva... unna mathiri yarum punch dialogue adikka mudiyathu

Janani said...

Reading it first time here.

Good thought. It's better to think about the msg before you starts spreading the msg.It can save energy and at times save lives too

Seshadri said...

it was true..good and usefule..that's wy liked it very much !!shud apply in our day-to-day life..